How Your Online Activities Impact Your Job Prospects

Many companies have policies concerning employees’ online conduct. (See the blog posting, What a Company Social Media Policy May Legally Require). Failing to know and follow your employer’s social media policy may get you booted out of your current job and make it difficult for you to secure a new job.

As a job seeker, you do not want any potential employer seeing social media postings in which you disclose a past employer’s confidential information or in which you bad-mouth a past employer.

Some internet infractions are illegal activities for which your employer can justifiably fire you – and perhaps even sue you or press criminal charges against you. They include disclosing your employer’s confidential information, making defamatory comments about your employer, and threatening people in the work place.

Other infractions are more akin to social blunders and simply make you look like an oaf no one would want to hire. This category of infractions include using your work email address while hunting for a new job.