Before you send out a single application, Google yourself.
Seriously. Open an incognito tab and search your full name. Scroll through the results. Now search your name plus your city. Now check image results. Now check Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, anywhere you have a public account.
What you find is what a recruiter will find.
Most of the time, it's harmless. Maybe an old blog post. Maybe a photo from a party in college that's not ideal but not career-ending. But sometimes there's something that's going to cost you interviews, and you need to know about it before they do.
**Things to clean up or lock down:**
- Party photos that tell the wrong story
- Old posts you wrote when you were 19 and angry at the world
- Public profiles with content you wouldn't want a future boss scrolling through
- Weird usernames tied to your real name on old forums, if those are still public
**Now, about faith specifically.**
Being openly Catholic online is fine. I'm not going to tell you to hide that. But there's a difference between being vocal about your faith and looking like an extremist. If your profile is you sharing reflections and the occasional Mass photo, that's one thing. If it looks like you'd start a holy war in the breakroom, that's another.
If you have a personal account that leans heavy in any direction and you're worried a recruiter might read it wrong, put it on private during your job search. You don't have to delete anything. You don't have to pretend to be someone you're not. Lock it down, apply, and unlock it once you've landed somewhere.
The goal isn't to be fake. The goal is to make sure the person they meet in the interview is the first version of you they form an opinion about.
