What is my web footprint? How much of my personality do I share on the internet, and how secure is it? If I want to be deemed employable, do I need to shut down all personal self-expression on Facebook, twitter, or other social networks?

Web 2.0 not only means that all my pictures, moment-by-moment mood swings, the events I attend, and more are posted to the internet for my friends to see, but also that the data is only as protected from potential employers, colleagues, clients, and others as the security settings are reliable. And we all know that some days, the net is pretty holey.

I am of two or three minds on this issue. I do have my Facebook and twitter accounts protected, and have special groups of users on some networks so that my aunts and uncles probably all think I’m rather boring and never post, while my friends are pretty well aware when I feel down, have seen a great new show, or am falling in love. I’m under no illusion that this data is sacrosanct, but at the same time, I continue to use the privacy tools at my disposal to maintain some boundaries with the public world. I think this is only prudent.

I also know that potential employers will look me up on social networking sites other than LinkedIn, and I do take care about what they will find if they are somehow able to access all my information. There are some things best expressed between friends in person, not recorded for perpetuity, for certain. Even more, if I am interested in posting something I would not want an employer to see, well, it raises the question as to whether there might be a better way to deal with that impulse. If I want to tweet that my job annoys me, perhaps I ought to talk to my manager instead?

However, I do also believe in something called “possession of the eyes.” If my neighbor looks in my window at night, does he or she have a right not to see me naked? I don’t think so. I live on the third floor. It’s not inadvertent for someone to look in, so I think that if they do, they take on the risk of seeing something they didn’t expect. Likewise, if an employer or prospective employer doesn’t wish to know that I really loved singing karaoke in a bikini last night, perhaps they should not be looking at my Facebook feed?

I believe in a healthy separation of my personal and professional spheres, while also nurturing a healthy integration of my authentic personality in how I work. So I’ll keep the privacy filters up on my personal social networking, wafer-thin as they may be, and hope that those wonderful people who might consider hiring me will respect them. Much like the sheer curtains on my apartment windows, the filters are as much for their sake as for my own. However, if someone chooses to use a pair of binoculars, I am not ashamed of what he or she may see. I’m just living my life in here.

And for information pertinent to my professional qualifications, please see the menu to the left for my resume, links to work product, and my LinkedIn profile. Please feel free to contact me for full time or freelance communications, project management, people management, database, or organizational work.