In today's competitive job market, the Internet is the most popular place to start searching for that new career or dream job.
The Internet has dramatically changed the way in which you find a job. It used to be that you relied on newspapers and word of mouth. Now, all you have to do is go online and you have a myriad of job openings at your disposal.
It only makes sense for job seekers to take full advantage of the Internet. There are so many reasons why this is the best way to find a job these days. The main reason being that new openings are posted every day.
As a Human Resources professional it is my job to stay on top of the job boards and look for new and exciting resumes to add to our applicant database. Since most applicants are online it is normal procedure in today's technology age to research applicants on social and professional networks to get a better sense of who's coming on board.
Along with using great tools like LinedIn profiles to get an idea of memberships and past job experiences to match submitted resumes'; we also have to look for things that are not as obvious. In Corporate America it is vital to know that the people that you invest in will spend their working hours focusing on the task at hand and not use those hours constantly checking int MySpace, GoogleChat, Twitter and Facebook.
At one point it was feared that looking on social networks was an infringement of privacy however, if a profile is public that means it is public knowledge. I have had several colleagues inform me at conventions that they have disregarded an applicants follow-up interview because of negative posts, friends and pictures from social networks like Facebook. At first I was appauled, but after the course of the day I found it to be common nature of Human Resources professionals.
Most all Corporate Departments now turn to Facebook Profiles before making those final decisions. Firing decisions have also been made because of 
those networks as well to suspend an employee for interacting at their coporate computers oro during normal working hours.
What you should walk away with after reading this article is the knowledge that if you have a public profile on any social network you should be mindful of your posts, your visible friends posts, comments made about your job or employer.
If you are in the applicant process you want to keep your posts to a minimal and monitor your activities ain a way that would deem professional to any passerby to your profile.
