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Safe E-Mail and Blogging

The growth and popularity of the internet make it an incredibly valuable resource for job seekers and potential employers alike. You can find information of all kinds online, and use the technology for quick, easy, and convenient communication. Despite these benefits and advantages, there are down sides to consider as well. All of your online communications - e-mail, blogs, etc. - are essentially public and available for viewing by a potential employer.

And that means employers can learn all sorts of things about you; things you may not want them to know.

Why be concerned with e-mail and blogging?

E-mail and blogs are public. Period. Even if you think you are communicating privately with another person, you are not because the other person could forward or share your message with others - without your knowledge. You literally can never know where your e-mail or blog will end up and who will read it.

Even if your blog is set up to be viewed only by those invited by you, that does not mean it is private. Anybody who views your blog can copy text or images and send the information to anyone else. What's more, search engines scan for and save the contents of web pages (sometimes for many months) which means they can be found easily by anyone who searches for a particular name, term, or phrase.

Employers know this, and that's why they are increasingly using simple online searching to check out potential job candidates. They look for blogs, websites, message boards, and discussion groups where information about you may appear. Stories abound of people being dropped from consideration for jobs because potential employers found unflattering material (pictures, comments, blogs, etc.) on social networking sites, discussion boards, and the like.

The irony is the vast majority of such information is out there on the internet because, in one way or another, the job candidates themselves put it out there.

Safe e-mail during your job search

Safe e-mail practices during a job search are just as critical, if not more so, than general online safety practices. It is in your best interest to carefully control and limit the information about yourself online so potential employers do not find anything that might be embarrassing or otherwise damage your job search success.

Job search e-mail safety begins with the use of a specific, dedicated e-mail address for all job search communications. Never use your personal e-mail address; instead, obtain an address from one of the many reputable free providers on the internet (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc.). When setting up that free e-mail address, be very conscious of the impression created by your chosen user name. Opt for something professional like 'jdoe@....' rather than the more casual 'surfdude@....' or the like.

There are other safe e-mail practices you should employ during your job search as well. First and foremost, if you are currently employed never, ever send any e-mail related to your job search via your work computer. Why? Quite simply, because your employer can (and probably does) read every email sent by every employee. Employers have the right to monitor everything you do with your computer, including internet and general web use, so even using a web-based e-mail service does not mean you can expect any kind of privacy.

Regardless of where you are when you send an e-mail message, always assume it can (and will) be forwarded without your knowledge or control. This means anything you say to someone else, about someone else, or about yourself, can easily spread far beyond your original intended audience. It is, effectively, out of your control once you hit that send button. What's more, e-mail providers routinely save and archive all e-mail messages as part of their normal back up procedures, which means your e-mail continues to exist far longer than you might have though.

If you have anything to say that is private or that you would not want someone other than the intended recipient to know, never say it in an e-mail. Make a phone call instead, or arrange a face to face discussion, rather than risk having a written message end up in the wrong hands.

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• Finding Jobs Online
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• Safe E-Mail and Blogging

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