Here is an excellent article about why you should keep your online activity under tabs. A lot of people (read: partying college kids) don’t realize that the reason why they might not get hired by a company is because companies are getting smarter and often look to the internet to look up information about potential employees. Here are some key points:

After many attempts to land that dream job, it seems no one’s interested, and you can’t quite put your finger on it. I mean, what could they possibly not want from you. You’re smart, got awesome grades in school, and even have that internship under your belt with some great referrals. There’s just one thing you’re forgetting about dude, and that’s your name. Yeah, it turns out those in charge of hiring these days are using the very simple task of searching for one’s name in search engines such as Google to find information about a possible job prospect. Turns out that when you Google your name, the first thing that appears is a newspaper article from way back in the day where your name appears with several of your friends for that carjacking you were involved with. Yeah, you were a young punk and you’ve changed since then, but the employer doesn’t know that. They’re gonna look elsewhere.

And if you’re in a relationship or have nosy family:

By using the history bar in your web browser, it’s not too hard to locate any web sites you’ve happen to visit recently. And when you get home, there’s bound to be hell to pay. Ever try explaining to your loved one about your secret porn obsession? Yeah, there’s a percentage out there who do and it turns out for the better, but I want to say that it’s a small one. Discussing with a spouse is one thing; having them find out on their own (it could even happen by accident if you share the same computer) is completely different.

This article is helpful in that it tells you what preventative measures you can take. The Internet is a powerful tool and, with social networking, anyone can make a name for themselves. But hopefully that name won’t pop up in Google under “chicken lover.”

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