Let’s face it summer is almost here and if you’re like me you‘re looking for an internship. You’ve prepared your cover letter; your resume is looking hecka good but what about your online presence? During fall semester, I took an internship class where I learned how to make myself more professional. That not only covered learning what to wear to an interview or what I should or shouldn’t put on my resume but it also included what I was posting online.
What you put online is how you represent yourself. Future employers will google you and check out ALL the social media accounts that you have!!!! My professor gave us an example of one of his former students that did not take cleaning up his online presence seriously. His Facebook profile was of him engaging in some….. let’s just say illegal activities that left him out of an internship. He was well qualified and a smart guy but his social media said otherwise.
Before anyone says anything about this being “Unfair” or condemning your freedom of speech, think about how your potential employers feel. All they have to go off of is a sheet of paper with all of your qualifications that you possess and until they set up an interview with you this is all they know about you. They look you up not only on professional sites like LinkedIn but also your Twitter, Instagram and especially Facebook. They are trying to see who you are as a person and not just what they have on a piece of paper.
If you want to improve your online presence then you should start looking at what you have posted in the past. What you thought back in high school might make you cringe now so deleting former post is always a good idea. Also see what pictures you’re tagged in, because no one wants their boss to see their weekend pub crawl pics trust me (nobody got time for drunken pics)!!!! Lastly make sure that anything you post you wouldn’t mind the whole world to seeing it, believe it or not, when you post on the internet it’s out there forever weather you’re private or not. So use some of these tips and that internship is yours!!!