Steps to secure your Facebook profile

It’s scary stuff – 45% of Employers are using social networking sites to research their job candidates, according to the recent CareerBuilder survey. More specifically, 30% of employers are looking at Facebook to find out what potential employees are like beyond the CV, as found by Yahoo Tech. In this respect, it is increasingly important to ensure your Facebook privacy and security settings are up to scratch!

The most important of these is your profile that shows in search results, visible to anyone. Ensure you limit the data that can be seen by searchers. In the case of a possible company search, you may want to have a ‘suitable’ profile picture, or not show the picture at all, given that 53% of failed job applicants who had been researched failed to get the job due to their inappropriate photos (Oregon Business News). A name should suffice.

Furthermore, it may be ideal to protect your friends and not show ‘My friend list’ in the search results. It is strongly advised to not allow ‘Public Search Listings’, where your name and Facebook details could be found through a search engine, such as Google or Yahoo. These privacy settings can all be edited through Settings > Privacy Settings > Search.

However, a number of Facebook users maintain both personal and professional relationships through their Facebook account. Here there are a number of pitfalls for the unsuspecting user, where professional contacts are granted an insight into your life beyond work. Key to preventing the professional world from viewing your personal world is to separate your Facebook Friends into two groups, Personal and Professional. This way, you can limit the viewing of your videos and photos, and possibly even your Facebook Wall, to just friends and family, whilst maintaining your professional relationships through Facebook messages.

Regarding detail placed on your Facebook profile, again it is in your interest to be very careful. A number of Facebook users are members of various groups and online societies which seem fun to join at the time, but are easy to forget, and such an affiliation can paint you in a very bad light. For example, would you really want a potential employer to know that you ‘Secretly Want to Punch Slow-Walking People in the Back of the Head’ (2325 members) ?! Bear in mind 26% of researched candidates failed to get the job by making discriminatory comments through their social network (Oregon Business Report).

Of Facebook users, 87% have their full name and 38% their date of birth on their profile, 27% place their education history online and 26% do the same with their work history (Equifax). Whilst this may seem safe for a potential employer to see, it does leave you vulnerable to fraud. Moreover, as Facebook doesn’t require any identification validation, anyone can create a profile to try and access your personal information and learn more about you, including an employer. Keep a close control on those in your Friends lists, and regulate who can see what, mitigating the risk of particular information leaking out, and threatening your chances in the job market!

In short, to limit the risk of negative information reaching potential employers, seriously consider the information you present through your profile. With 45% employers using these sites, up from 22% in 2008, social network research is an increasingly popular tactic used to learn more about the applicant, shifting the way in which networks like Facebook are used. Make sure you’re not caught out.

Rebecca De Hoest, BraveNewTalent intern

Experiences of an Intern

I have done internships in many different industries throughout university to try to understand which industry I may want to pursue once I graduate. All the experiences were different but there was one, which ignited my interest the most…

This is my seconding time interning with BraveNewTalent, but this time is different as the internship is a trial period that could potentially lead to a job. I have decided to return to BraveNewTalent over other companies due to the work atmosphere. It is a dynamic, active and an inspiring work place. There is also room to make your impression on the company giving you a feeling of accomplishment. Most importantly I believe in what BraveNewTalent does and what it wants to achieve with BraveNewTalent.com. In my mind that in itself is the most important thing, it makes tasks that would otherwise seem uninteresting, well…interesting.

The experience I had interning at an alternative energy investment fund was very different. Firstly, the company wasn’t used to having short-term interns so they had a hard time defining my role. Secondly, the person I was working under was always traveling so it was difficult to get in touch with him when I had questions or was finished with a project. Even worse most people in the office did not get along with one another creating a constant tension. The result being, a pretty boring, monotonous experience that definitely did not persuade me to work in the investment world again.

The next and last internship I had was at the United Nations, which was very interesting, exciting as well as challenging. The internship was well structured and I definitely got a lot out of it. However, it was more the organization that I found frustrating and which pushed me away from pursuing any further career with the UN or NGOs’ at least for now. As I am now looking to start my career, I realize how important it is to do internships but I also realize that they cannot reproduce what its like to be a full time employee in a particular industry. Firstly, you are rarely given the responsibility you would if you were a full-time employee. You also don’t know whom you are going to be working with, which in my experience is one of the most important aspects of a good working relationship. However, more than anything else it is a fantastic way of learning about yourself and what your strengths and weaknesses are like in the work place. These are the types of things you don’t get to learn at school or university. My personal experience taught me that you should always make sure the company you are looking to intern for is used to having the internship position you are looking for. There is nothing worse then sitting at your desk all day and having nothing to do.

Mariella Danspeckgruber, BraveNewTalent intern

GOOGLE PARTY - Rock on!

After meeting all the Google team I was invited to the hottest ticket in town - The Google After Hours party. This was cool as I got to see the legendry David Ball and his team in action. What a great party. The details were very cool. There was a flashing dance floor made up of the Google colours, neon and lighting every where. As well as that some of the coolest people in Davos were there…

One of the most random meetings was with Robert McCooey and Bruce Aust of NASDAQ. I told them all about One Young World and we laughed that soon I will be calling them to IPO BraveNewTalent.com! What was cool is that Robert invited me to come to New York to give a speech about One Young World and close the stock market. This really made me laugh! It is a real ceremony over there where you ring the trading bell. This could be a really cool opportunity. I am certainly following up on this one!

star trek HD download

I then managed to track down Al Gore and told him all about our aims with OYW and really emphasised how the US would have low just 61 delegates! He really liked the idea. I told him that it would be cool for him to be a counsellor. I was not sure what to do then. You cant really ask someone like Al Gore for a business card! We just smiled, shook hand and said goodbye and goodluck! Unfortunately not one I think I can follow up on.

The Tapscott family (Wikinomics) were there in full force and were having a great time. Prince Haakon of Norway remembered our chat the day before and was very friendly. I went over to have a drink with him and rather embarrassingly invited him to join me skiing in Norway next week (I am going next weekend!). He laughed and said he would love to…

The room was full of very senior people. Chad Hurley (YouTube) and I managed to catch up again. He is a very cool down to earth guy. We were all laughing when he called me an ultimate networker. I explained that this was my job as I was starting BraveNewTalent.com. I said surely when you founded YouTube you ran around like a madmad telling everyone how great the site was’. He replied ‘No, not really’. Maybe some people are just luckier that their idea kicks of without any of the madman networking needed!

The cocktails were so good that my dancing got a little crazy. I managed to firstly wipe out the singer my swinging some very beautiful girl around my at an uncontrollable speed… What then happened was I managed to do it again but this time I got my lovely dance party to flying kick one of Google’s most senior people on an empty dance floor - whoops!

I joined the Google after hours after party in one of their Range rovers. We all headed to piano bar and hung around there until we got thrown out at 5am. Going to bed at 5.30am I realise that I have a 9.30 am meeting… 8 house sleep since arriving in Davos is not beginning to take its toll I think!

DAVOS WEF Day 4 - from politicians to billionairs: anything goes in Davos

If Davos went on for a couple of weeks I think I would have a global business in no time at all. I honestly never thought it was possible to shake hands with so many billionaires in a day… Today was really informative on numerous levels. After very little sleep (I have not managed to get more than 4 hours a night since being here - not cool!) I headed over to the Belvedere. I managed to bump into Jet Li again after just sending him an email. It was fantastic as I met his right hand man. A young Chinese chat that was clearly incredibly cleaver and passionate about his work. I really pitched to him the One Young World was Chinas first ever opportunity to have proportionate representation of their population at a global event. Not only that it is a way to give young Chinese people a powerful voice in the world. It is my aim that One Young World could be a young Davos or a ‘youth Kyoto’ where young people can mobilize their voice and views to really have an international impact. With people like Jet on board, the Tom Cruise of Asia, this by no means is a utopian dream.

Following this I went along to the British business leaders lunch. I was impressed how how large the British representation was at Davos. Three was probably 100 people in the room. I imagine this is less than half of our representatives also. Peter Mandelson, gave a long and very impressive analysis of the UK economy. Although I cant go into details of what he said I was impressed by his intelligence as well as his passion for the UK economy. There were loads of UK business leaders I recognised, the room was certainly a powerful one. We heard some interesting thoughts about buying British, protectionism and the future. Being here in Davos it occurs to me that nobody really knows what is going on in the world. All these ‘business leaders’ seem to be in rather a state of shock at the speed and depth of this recession. I heard that this year will be the first year since 1982 that the global economy will shrink. I think we are living in unprecedented time and Davos just confirms that even the most successful, most intelligent and most experienced leaders on the planet really lack good ideas on a unified way forward. I would sum up the general Davos feeling in one word: confusion.

dragonball evolution dvdrip

Enough on the economy - I get really bored by all the recession chat. People that make it their business to moan about the recession are never going to see the countless opportunities that exist out there. My view is simple - lets take the economy on head on, with an attitude of innovation and entrepreneurialism and see the positive aspects that exist in every market and industry.

Following Mandelson’s speech I managed to have a chat with him. I mentioned that he was supposed to launch One Young World in India on 22nd January. He seemed to really like the idea. I was telling him all about it much to the dismay of all the journalists standing around him that wanted to steer back the conversation to less optimistic things like the recession! Following this I spoke to a few of the journalist one of the senior people at the FT told me how the future of the newspaper industry is very shaky as nobody wants to pay for content they read. I can only see this getting more of a problem in the future as my generation certainly don’t like paying for newspapers when they expect to be able to get it for free online. Something occurred to me here; if there is less money in the media industry there will have to be less journalists which will mean either the quality of coverage will decrease OR/AND the role of ordinary people, bloggers, social networks will over take this industry in reporting news as it happens. I am sure that anyone going into journalism today that is not up on new media channels will have a difficult career ahead of themselves.

I managed to speak to some very senior people at various companies about One Young World, Including Peter Morgan from BT. He really liked the concept so I am going to see him on my return to London. As I was walking out I ran into Lakshmi Mittal on the stairs. Immediately I jumped on the opportunity. I had have met him before (briefly) at the Emerging India Awards so I mentioned this. He seemed to really get and really like One Young World. Again especially the fact it will be India’s opportunity to shine as a future economy. He asked his assistant (the lovely Selina) to follow up with me. I managed to get an hour with Selina and she loved it all. Looking positive. Selina then set up a meeting with Aditya Mittal and myself. This went really well. WE had about 20 minutes together. I offered him the opportunity to potentially be a counsellor if he could sponsor the Indian delegation. His eyes lit up when he thought that he would represent next gene India and share a platform with people like Geldof, Tutu and Annan… This again is one to watch.

I then had a great chat with Mohammad Yunus again. I told him that I work with Baba Amte through Take Heart (www.TakeHeartIndia.org). He knew Baba well and described him as a saint. This was so nice for me to hear!

George Osborne questioned me on whether it would be good for the UK only having 13 delegates out of 1500. But the more I explained to him how it was the UK’s opportunity for us to demonstrate to the world that we are a thought leader in developing the world future generations it was more like music to his ears. He has put me in touch with a person the Conservatives office. Who knows who will be in power on February 8-10th 2010!

I then caught up with the India crew at the Infosys party. I spoke to Nandan Nilekani, Co Chairman of Infosys about the concept and asked the company to sponsor (no beating around the bush). I think i will get to have a meeting with him next time I am in Bangalore. The food at the party was incredible - they had flown over a Michelin chef from London. First time I have ever tried Chocolate Prawns. I met some amazing people at this party. I followed up with Vijay Mallya who sort of bragged that he was about to jump in his helicopter to fly home. He really makes me laugh as he is the king of Indian new money - flash with the cash.. Very talented guy though and the master of personal branding.

paul blart mall cop online

• wall e dvdrip

I met David Aikman who heads up Young Global Leaders (YGLs). Davis is certainly one of the most interesting people I have met in Davos. Hugely dedicated and hugely passionate. He kicked it off immediately. He knew all about One Young World and was obviously a very big fan. I discussed it all at length with him and we decided that it was vital that we try to stick to our guns in selecting delegates in proportion to the worlds population. Then something really cool happened, he was asking about my back ground and I mentioned Take Heart and my connection to Baba Amte in passing. David stopped me and told the story of how he had visited Baba Amte’s centres 7 years ago and it had changed his view of the world. We really connected on this and I promised that I would show him round next time he visited. We really do live in a small interconnected world. After chatting with David and his wife for about 45 minutes another person joined us and asked me if I was YGL. David immediately said that I was high up on his radar. This was such an honour for me to hear. I have now firmly got becoming a YGL in my sights. It is a phenomenal platform for social good. I think I am still too young and inexperienced but one day I hope I will have the honour to join these remarkable people. Most of them are between the age of 35-40.

Yet another phenomenal day in the unreal world of Davos. Now for the Google party…

DAVOS WEF Day 3 - Launch of One Young World and Kofi Annan's climate justice movement

Today saw the launch One Young World in Davos. What a great day! I started this morning with Kofi Annan as he launched his Climate Justice Movement in association with the Global Humanitarian Forum. One Young World will be supporting this initiative by airing the vioces of the next generation.

The weather is absolutely beautiful. I heard Kofi speak about the importance of mobilising the next generation to tackle climate change. We all have a responsibility to do our bit. This was fascinating stuff. He laid out a impressive ‘polluter pays’ argument that will be taken to Copenhagen.

watch changeling in divx

The new One Young World site is up and can be accessed at www.OneYoungWorld.com. We have also temporarily changed our homepage in its honour - see www.BraveNewTalent.com. I am so grateful to all the hard work and efforts of the BNT team back home. I can feel the momentum picking up. Words cannot describe my excitement as we take this challenge forward.

Life remains good in Davos - I am about to walk into a lunch with Bill Clinton and Richard Branson among others. An update on that coming soon!

DAVOS WEF Day 2 - Tapscott, The Elders, YouTube, Google - what a day!

There are good days and then there are indescribable days. Today is one of the indescribable days. Being at Davos is simply an honour. I have probably met more people in one day that have shaped the world I have grown up in that the rest of my years put together. Whether is Heads of Google and the Founder of YouTube to Stelios of Easy Jet I have met some very impressive people. Davos gathers truly exceptional people.

However, the tone has been all together pretty somber. From my experience the really exciting things have been happening in discussions outside of the economy. The economic downturn has been central to the agenda. I am looking forward to launching One Young World tomorrow with Kofi Annan and providing journalists with a positive message. Check out the new website: www.OneYoungWorld.com

I had a great conversation with Dom Tapscott, internet legend and author of Wikinomics. Dom is launching a new book called Grown up digital. I am just guessing but I imagine this will be another best seller. Don focuses very much on the Net Gen/Gen Y and how the digital world has changed the world in which we have grown up. He basis the book on his experiences from his lovely daughter Nicole.

Nicole Taspscott and Rahaf Harfoush are a very impressive pair. Both from Canada they are heading up the community site for the WEF. I have no doubt that Rahaf will have her year in 2009. She was one of the key players behind Obama’s social media outreach. She is launching a book called ‘Yes We Did’. With her exceptional creativity and network of leaders such as Don she will very quickly become a important voice in the new media space.

transporter 3 download HD

I have to wake up in 4 hours to prepare for the One Young World launch. I would love to write so much more about everything I have taken away from today but must get some sleep! I think I will need to blog properly on my return. So far all I can say is Davos is a place where big things happen.

Global Enterprising Young Brit of the Year - Vote for me at http://unhub.com/lucian/

It been a mad couple of weeks. Taz got married which meant both he and Nuno were out of the office. I realise how vital every member of the team is when they are gone!

fast and furious 4 dvd

watch changeling in divx

HD dragonball evolution download

inkheart dvd

So I have been lucky this week - I am in the final (one of 4) for Global Enterprising Young Brit of the Year. The judging is happening next Tuesday (24th March). By being in the final I am also up for the People’s Choice Award. Any one can vote for me to win this by going to: http://unhub.com/lucian/ Thanks for taking the time to vote!