So college is supposed to be the time of your life. A time when you can do anything and get away with it. Graduation was supposed to mark our entry into the “adult” world. Well boys and girls, this used to be true until Google invaded our lives. Have any of you every Googled your names? You will be surprised by the news/articles that come up as #1 hits.

Why Should You be Worried?

Prospective employers do perform due-diligence on new hires. For those of you ignorant folks out there, that means they investigate you with any means possible. Be it calling previous employers where you interned, or performing a Google search to see if they can find a blog, or even bad-press about you! So while you could have had the 4.0 GPA from McIntire, President of your Fraternity status, a Google link to your college-year arrest for doing something ridiculously stupid can bar you from getting a job. Then again, if you were stupid enough to get caught doing stupid things in college, you really didn’t deserve the job in the first place.

While we can quit our jobs or be fired at-will, we cannot leave our parents. Yes, parents. You know, the old timers who raised us? They are getting more internet savvy and might want to check you out as well. All those stories you made up during college as excuses to cover-up lame and stupid behavior can all be erased with the click of a Google search button.

What Can You Do?

Fortunately there is a cure for this. Google works via a method called “page-ranking”. The most relevant hits with the most traffic come up as the primary links on a search. Use this to your advantage:

• create blog posts EVERYWHERE and sign them with your name
• create a LinkedIn profile page
• get your charitable work in the news
• stop acting like a frikkin a$$hole

The lesson we should all take from this is that nothing is kept secret anymore. If anyone has ever snickered, insulted, or bashed you in any way online, Google will find it. Do yourself a favor and Google yourself. See what comes up, but be prepared for the worst. While its cool to be a cVillain, its not cool when Google indexes your stupid behavior.

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