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By Gerry Adams, May 1, 2010

Do you enjoy social networking? Social networking includes blogging, twittering, and more. From Orkut, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, BlogSpot, and more, there are endless opportunities to state your opinion online. But is this really as anonymous as it seems?

Many college graduates are seeing the advantages of closing out certain social networking pages before beginning their job search. Information that was fun to share online during our college days is not always advantageous to share during our professional phase of life.

Why would you want to do this? Don’t you have a right to your opinion? Of course you do. But during your job search, you must consider how any information disclosed might impact an employers’ opinion of you.

Think this sounds paranoid? Think again. Many employers now have interns who will join the same social networking sites that college graduates are likely to have joined, with the purpose of finding out the information that you may not disclose on an interview. Even senior level hiring managers are likely to conduct a quick Google search on you.

It is likely that we have all said or done things in our youth that we would rather employers not know about. For today’s younger generation that grew up using sites like Orkut, Facebook, and MySpace, this can be a concern as they transition into a professional phase of life.

Many young people think that social networking sites that require passwords are fair game. This can be a bit nave. It is not unlikely that the recruiter for the job you really want has a son or a daughter in the same networking site as you, and they may even create their own and get direct access if you accept anyone you meet online into your group.

If you think that this growing trend will cut down on the social use of blogs and online groups, think again. According to a recent survey conducted by AfterCollege.com, most of the 60 students surveyed have not changed their online habits.

The same survey asked 90 employers if they would not hire a candidate based on information found online. Six percent admitted that this was the case, while 26% failed to answer the question.

According to a representative from the AfterCollege.com survey, students should be taking this new trend very seriously.

Besides jobs and careers, this author also regularly pens articles about final cut pro and bluetooth keyboard.