Using social media to find a f*#@ing job?

Yes, I know. It is funto swear on social media.

It gets you attention. People start talking and retweeting your hilarity with reckless abandon.

You get 45 thumbs-ups from your Facebook peeps who just can't standhow funny you are because you find a way to use d*ckh#ad in every third status update.

Your personal blog lights up every time you drop a few f-bombs in just the right places.

And that's all fine and well. I get it. We live in a society that thrives on shock value. Why on earth would you say "My, my, I have just gone through a rough patch," when you can say, "Holy crap, this was a shit storm!" 

Why?

If you want or need a new job, and you're going to leverage social media to do so? Here's why...

It can be ridiculously hard to cover your tracks before a potential employer sees all you have to offer online.

Hear of Googling? I thought so.

Most all of us recruiters, HR professionals and hiring managers take a little look-see there EVERY TIME we're considering a new candidate for a professional position.

You may be the world's greatest R & D engineer with patents and trophies that fill an entire room. But if you also maintain a rude, controversial or otherwise tasteless blog... or have an unprotected Facebook page that reads like a continual Girls Gone Wild video?

Bye.

Study your online presence before and during your job search. If you can unearth some obscure thing that you KNOW could make a potential employer rule you out?

Trust that I can unearth it too.

And clean it up before I get there.

Photo: babble.com