What you put on MySpace is forever

Most students are not aware of the role of North Lake College’s Career Services Center. First, all of our services are FREE. Our services range from resume writing, mock interviews, job searching and career research, and on some occasions you have seen a representative in your classroom.

We have four fulltime staff members and three part-time student assistant to help you schedule appointments for our services. We service student, alumni, and all community members as well. So, in short, everyone is welcome.

It is very important that you have direction and knowledge for your career path. Knowledge is the key to locked doors, and direction applied will give you focus.

Recently the Career Services department hosted a seminar entitled, “Who’s Looking In Your Space On MySpace.com.?” The seminar was very helpful, and our guest was Bill Fenson, coordinator, College of Business Administration Career Services of the University of Texas at Arlington. He did a fantastic job by informing us on the practices of using Myspace, blogging, YouTube and Facebook. These are all good tools to use, but in every part of life there are boundaries.

The best advice he gave was not to put anything on the sites you would not want your mother to see. In addition to your mother, who else is looking in your space? Employers are. Even though these sites are for communicating with family and friends, employers are logging on, too. They are looking for the soul and spirit of a person.

As an employer it is sometimes hard for them to really know who they are hiring. Employers, these days, are digging and going deeper to find the real you – your character. The friends you choose to commune with and build relationships with tell a lot about you. Your language, actions and your thoughts. Yes, employers really do that, and it is legal. There is no written law stating otherwise. I have spoken to students with MySpace accounts and you have told that you use the privacy tab. Well, Fenson says it is too risky. Be careful about what you put on the Internet because it never will go away.

Have you applied for a job recently and you felt you were qualifi ed and had a wonderful interview, and did not get the job? (Now, there are other things that could factor into this decision) but could it be something on your MySpace page? Think about. Check it out.

Since this is the fi rst column for “The Career Corner,” I am very interested in your thoughts about MySpace. Tell me your views. How do you feel about employers using it to make a fi nal decision about hiring you to represent their company and work for them? Does the privacy tab work for you? Should there be a law to prevent employers from using MySpace.com, YouTube and other sites and a hiring tool?

Think about. I want to hear from you.

– Brigitte Campbell is a career planning and placement specialist with Career Services. She can be reached at 972-273-3234.