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Over 75% of hiring managers will look at your Facebook page to see who you are before they hire you. What does your Facebook profile say about you?

In a world where everything we do is up online before we even get back to our homes, it is important to make sure that our online life won’t destroy our careers or the likelihood of us getting hired.

The Good

If you show yourself doing charitable work or work with a church, synagogue, temple or mosque, it will generally be well received.

Pictures that show your love for your family also is something that hiring managers like to see. People like to see that you have a family. Family generally means stability and accountability. A person with mouths to feed is a lot less likely to lose their temper and walk off or not show up from a drinking bender the night before. Be proud to show off your family, as you should.

This applies to women too. If you find an employer who is going to wonder in some backwards 1960’s way if you can “balance family and a career,” you don’t want to work for that person anyway.

About 80% of hiring managers like to see that you belong to professional organizations. There are thousands of organizations, not all of them actually legitimate. Be sure to check out every group you might join to be sure that they aren’t a waste time or, worse, a rip-off.

Two-thirds love to see that you support and give time of charities. Be careful here, though: make sure that it is an appropriate charity. The American Nazi Party is technically a charity, but it will not get you in a Jewish-owned law firm. Similarly, your membership in PETA is not likely to get you hired at Hormel.

The Bad

There should be some obvious things that you don’t post on Facebook page if you have a job or need one.

Here is a short list of things that will guarantee you stay on the unemployment line:

• Your new favorite bong
• Pictures from the rave you hosted Saturday night
• Images of you drinking at the rave
• All 35 pages that you like are brands of liquor
• Pictures of you and your friends acting like you used your bong
• A listing of all your favorite movies, which are “The Trip” and “Harold and Kumar”
• Liking pages that have the words “hate,” “kill,” or “destroy” in the name

I’m sure you’re getting the picture. Everyone has some whacko beliefs, everyone. (No, you are not special.) Indulge your personal whackiness in private not on your Facebook page.

The Ugly

Here are a list of some of the stupid things that people do that guarantee to never get a job:

• Put on your application that you’ve never been convicted of a felony, then posting a “shout-out” to your homies in cell-block D at Pelican Bay.
• Listing you current employer as Microsoft on your application and “The Pink Pussycat” gentlemen’s club on your Facebook page.
• Posting a ton of postings about how much your current employer sucks, alongside his home address and his kids’ names
• Posting pictures of you throwing things at the aforementioned house and/or kids
• Listing “The Ten Best Places in the World to Get High Legally”

And the number one thing that even people who don’t do any of this crazy stuff do to not get the job:

Post a lot of updates with misspelling and grammatical mistakes.

That’s right. If you can’t post two sentences without making a mistake, there is a really good chance that you are not as literate as your resume states.

Three simple rules to make sure your Facebook profile doesn’t torpedo your job prospects:

1.     Make sure each posting is written so your fifth grade teacher would approve.
2.     Make sure each posting is something you can show to your dear sweet grandmother.
3.     Make sure each posting will look as good twenty years from now when you kids look at it.

Follow these simple rules and you should have no problem turning your Facebook page from a liability to an asset.

By| Bob Peryea