Do your students pass the “grandma test”?
Syracuse, Johns Hopkins and Rochester Universities are part of a growing trend among higher education: Schools that help their outgoing students clean up their Internet reputations. The schools are offering online tools to help students scrub embarrassing materials.
The free tools don’t remove undesirable photos of drunken frat parties or dumb pranks – that’s just not possible. But they do make sure a flattering, professional profile of the graduate is the first thing potential employers see when they do a Google search (as two in five hiring managers say they do).
BrandYourself – developed by Syracuse alumni – charges $10 a month for an account that helps search engines find and boost the ranking of students’ LinkedIn accounts and other preferred pages. The company was started after co-founder Pete Kistler learned that being confused for a drug dealer with the same name was keeping him from being considered for internships.
About 25,000 people have access to the service, including Syracuse students and alumni, who are offered accounts free of charge.
Other schools that don’t offer such a service still make sure students understand the importance of cleaning up their online footprints before starting a job search. As University of Colorado-Boulder career services director Lisa Slavery told CBS:
“The first item on our ‘five things to do before you graduate’ list is ‘clean up your online profile. We call it the grandma test – if you don’t want her to see it, you probably don’t want an employer to, either.”
How does your school help students put their best foot forward online? Tell us in the comments section, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.
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