By now, pretty much everyone has a social presence.  We all have accounts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, WeChat, WhatsApp plus a few more I probably haven’t discovered yet.  They’re great for following your friends latest news and exploits, keeping up with the real or fake news items, and laughing at the humorous stuff people post.  It’s all good fun, right?

Like my mother used to say, “It’s all fun and games until somebody loses an eye”…or a shot at a career.

Wait…you didn’t think that your potential employer is tech-savvy enough to check your social media accounts to get an idea on how your personality will fit with their corporate structure?  Will they find posts where you are ranting about your current employer and how STUPID management are, and all the mistakes they have made?  How about photos of you publicly drunk or wasted; exposing body parts; using illegal substances; political, racist, anti-semantic rantings?

When I was in school, our teachers always warned us that any insurrections would become part of our “permanent file” that would follow us the rest of our lives.  I’m pretty sure they were just yanking  our chain.  The Internet, however, doesn’t forget.  It files.  And your potential employer has full access to all your Internet history.  Especially if you are looking at working in private aviation, where your clients can be the movers and shakers of the world, will they be most interested  in your character.

So what can you do?  Start by doing an Internet search on yourself.  Anything come up there that reflects you in a bad light, trace it and see if there’s a way to remove it.  Clean up your Facebook, Twitter, etc. of any postings that are less than flattering.  There may still be a history that you cannot quite erase, but at least you can clean up what you are able.  And the best plan of action is to censor what you post from this moment on.

More information on this subject can be found in an excellent article by Scott Arnold of SAJet Solutions:   http:/sajetsolutionsblogspot.com

Tim Kirkwood, Author

THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT CAREER GUIDE

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