Cleanse Thy Online self

Have a blog , member of a forum , just writing comments on random blogs or just pressing Thanks at various sites for downloading movies and software be very careful every move you make leaves digital footprints which will come to haunt you .
Taking the business scenario , now from Karachi to Kalamazoo , Multan to Melbourne more and more employers are resorting to Google , Yahoo and MSN to find more about their employees and applicants and it’s all legal . It’s the simplest of method to find more information and develop a psychological ans potential profile of present and would be employees .
Not all digital foot prints can harm , some can even be beneficial . Leaving tracks at a controversial site ( loosely termed ) can hurt the future to leaving tracks on professional sites like Linked’In , industry Forums can be beneficial showing your interest and networking potential .
How to avoid getting caught , play it wise , when visiting controversial sites use a pseudo name and when visiting professional sites use your full name .
Harvard Business Review has a full Case Study on “ We Googled You “ by Diane Coutu (http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/flatmm/ics/HBRInteractiveCaseStudy.pdf) for download

Remember Googling progessional employees is upheld by the american courts and is now the basic tool

BBC has published an article How to blog and not get fired
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5195714.stm

One more thing , check you emails when you sent them to the potential employers , whatever4u , luckywhatever , cutewhatever , dirtydog , whateverenemy does not leave a good impression on the employer and shows the mental attitude of the person . make an email strictly for resumes which also cuts out on junk and lost emails . make it professional sounding like Engineerwhatever , WhateverIT , which shows your pro attitude


Even I had not been careful and had be traced down once by one of my readers who is also my nieghbor and friend :)

Advisingly

Farhan