Social Media

[LateToTheGame755]

So, will adcoms actually look? I've been careful to make sure I haven't been tagged in any photos with alcohol or post anything "bad" but is there a reason to make my twitter/instagram private? Facebook is already set so basically only friends-of-friends can see anything, but will they even check?

 

[JustAPhD]

It's my opinion (and I feel many others share this) that personal twitters and instagrams should always be set to private anyways. Why let the general public see that?

 

[Grunt2doc]

It should be set to private regardless. Many companies will check you out on social media before hiring, I can't see why adcoms would be any different. While you may not have anything "bad", a person can certainly make a judgement based on the content of your posts.

 

[freak7]

Members of an adcom at a school I visited said that they absolutely will Google your name since they didn't view it as fair to Google some and not others.

 

[anonymoose1640]

I posted this in a different thread from the other day, but I had a couple interviewers and different schools admit to googling my name. Never post anything questionable to social media, ever. You never know who might look!

 

[binko]

My social media strategy:

1. Put up some very tame, mild, accounts under my real name that only have info about my professional/academic interests, things that would make me look good to employers/adcoms. It gives them something to find when they look and you have control over it. These should be the same across sites.

2. For most of my actual social media activities, use handles that are not the same as my real name and don't prominently feature my face or identifying info. Make sure these are not the same name from one social media site to another.

Like, if my name was Dr. Leo Marvin, I'd have a twitter @DrLeoMarvin and a facebook under "Dr Leo Marvin" both linked to my LinkedIn profile. I'd post pictures of myself rescuing baby bunnies and returning library books on time on these accounts, follow/add a few of my most clean-cut friends, plus Atul Gawande and President Obama, and retweet vague inspirational grapics about believing in people and God having a plan for everyone. My profile pic would be my college graduation photo or a picture of me donating blood or something.

Then I'd log out of those and rarely update them, instead doing my actual social media interactions as @iMaStoOpiDgUy on Twitter an Dame Frau Madame Silly Pants, ESQ. on Facebook, and my avatar would be a cat with a waffle on its head. Then I'd be free to retweet Chuck Tingle to my heart's content with those.

 

[Doctor-S]

So, will adcoms actually look? I've been careful to make sure I haven't been tagged in any photos with alcohol or post anything "bad" but is there a reason to make my twitter/instagram private? Facebook is already set so basically only friends-of-friends can see anything, but will they even check?

We have employees who are responsible for Googling potential new hires and for checking social media sites. If you don't want to leave a visible footprint about yourself on the Internet, it's advisable to not post comments (or photos) on social media that you don't want the rest of the world to know about you (or see about you). Plus, you might not want information (or photos) about yourself cached forever; and many sites regularly cache information about current (and former) posters. Seriously, even if you're deceased, your Internet "presence" can go on indefinitely, thanks to dead links, broken websites, etc.

Thank you.