How Social Networking Could Kill Your Career

Social networking has brought us all closer together in almost every possible meaning of the phrase, which brings up a very important and insightful question. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? While social networking can bring you back together with friends or family that are across the world, it can also kill your career at work. The reason for this phenomenon is that employers get a look at who you are when your shift is over by reading what you have to say.

In some instances the things that you say can kill your career before it even gets started as you are spotted in the hiring process. Say you have interviewed for a job and think everything is going well and you go home to wait to hear about the employer's decision. They are excited with you as well and decide to get a little background information on you to solidify their decision.

The employer visits your Facebook or Twitter page and sees a few remarks that you made about your previous employer and begins to ask if you are the type of person who cannot be satisfied. This makes the employer think about the money they will waste on training someone who is ready to jump ship before they get started and they toss your resume in the trash can.

This same type of scenario can happen when you are already employed and one of your coworkers stumbles across your likeness on a social networking site. Little things you have to say on your page can turn in to big things that portray you in a negative light. This is not the way you want your career to turn out so it is important to watch what you have to say.

Finally, don't simply rely on your page being set to "private" to be able to say whatever you want in any situation. Quotes have a way of being forwarded to public pages and still attributed to you, not to mention the fact that many social networking sites aren't as secure as they would like you to believe. Don't let your career suffer because you vented in print on the World Wide Web, make smart decisions and save your career.