Well folks, it is that time of year: the summer job search. There is a vital but often overlooked component that employers consider when hiring and that is your Facebook. Below are steps on how to make your profile employer friendly.

Step 1. CENSOR

The best advice I can give you is to censor your Facebook as if your grandma is your Facebook friend. For example, if you would not be comfortable with your grandma viewing it, then you should delete it. So remind your friends that inappropriate material will not be tolerated, at least on cyberspace. Also, your profile should be on private. However privacy walls are not impenetrable, because if there is a will, there is a way for an employer to get access to it. Remember: Big Brother is always watching.

Step 2. Watch the alcohol

We get it, you are in college and sometimes it seems that alcohol and the college experience inevitably go hand in hand. You feel that it is OK for your pictures and statuses to be centered on lavations. But the content that is alcohol related can and should be controlled. While you think your profile picture of you doing a keg stand or that status that you downed twenty beers makes you look like a beast, to an employer’s eyes it makes you look reckless and therefore unemployable. Solution: boozecats. This Photoshop meme allows you to superimpose images of cute kitties over bottles and cups. So now instead of looking like an alcoholic, you look like an animal lover and who wouldn’t want hire someone good with felines? Or hey, you can always delete those pictures, buddy.

Step 3. Watch the partying

The sentiment in the previous tip also applies to partying. While you think pictures of partying make you look fun, employers will perceive you as a crazy and no company wants to hire a person like that.

Step 4. Cover Photo

Nowadays it seems that a cover photo is a picture that allows you to showcase as many of your friends as possible. However, you should use this as an opportunity to showcase yourself as a potential candidate. You should check out http://www.addcovers.com/?c=100  and get yourself an inspirational cover photo. Nothing “broadcasts” employable like an Albert Einstein quote.

Step 5. Stop oversharing

Facebook is not your diary so do not put overly private details about your life in statuses, “About Me”, or posts. There is truly a time and a place for everything, so do not disseminate how your boyfriend is a jerk or you hate your dad. Your friends, me and especially future employers do not want to see that. Save the drama for your Joe. Joe who, you ask? Joe momma.