We’ve all taken photos that we shouldn’t have, but do you know what they are? Some might seem quite innocent to you, like a photo of you and your friends having a few drinks at the bar, or maybe doing something silly like riding around in a shopping cart. Innocent enough, right? That might be true for the most part, but when it comes to being employed, employers might see things a little differently.
Now with our names and social media pages being so readily available online, all an employers has to do is perform a quick search and he/she will be able to find out more about you in a matter of minutes. Well if you’d like to improve your chances of landing that dream job, a new company called Social Sweepster will help you do that by scanning and scrubbing your Facebook and Twitter pages.
The service will help comb through your posts and photos that might be deemed unacceptable by prospective employers and remove them. This service was thought up by a Tom McGrath, a graduate of Indiana University’s Class of 2013. Now we should point out that similar services have existed before, but what makes Social Sweepster different is that it helps detect photos as well, while other services tend to filter based on text.
For example some photos that might raise red flags includes photos with beer cans, bottles, or those red cups that are usually associated with college parties. Users will be able to review those photos and delete them or untag themselves. As it stands the service is in beta and while image identification isn’t perfect yet, McGrath believes that this is a service that job seekers will want to take advantage of.
According to him, “If you spent all this money on a college education and you’ll spend $5 on a coffee, why not prevent the slightest chance that a potential employer will be upset?” What do you guys think?