Thanks to the advent of the Internet, we are now able to communicate and correspond with each other faster. We can even talk to out friend in Manila or Botsvana without having to use the telephone because of the Voice Over Internet Protocol. It's easy and cheap and we can talk until we drop (unless the connection got disconnected).

Apart from that, finding a job is getting easier with the Internet. With just one simple click, you can submit your resume and just wait for the phone call. If it does not get through, you will be notified through the same media; the Internet, without having to wait and keep on waiting. As soon as we know the answer to the application, we continue our search on the World Wide Web for other jobs.

If we are getting savvy on the Internet, we have to remember this is also the case of our future employers. Everything that we post over the Internet can and may be seen by our future employers. The night that we partied till we drop on our graduation night or the one where we were posing in an.. er controversial ways, is not private. The whole world who gets on the Internet may be able to see whatever we post on our favourite communities, be it Fotopages, Multiply, Facebook or even Friendster.

Most companies want their workers to be of sound judgement. And imagine what they think when they see Khalil's picture trying to drown his cousin or such, it will display a not so good judgement of the young fella. Not surprisingly, he may be able to lose the opportunity to get the job.

The solution to this is shutdown everything. Delete everything that you've posted on the Internet.

Naah..kidding. It's not that hard, really. If we are lucky (or rather unpopular), our names will not appear on Google. That way, what we could do is to set our profile on online communities to be private. This way, the risk of being seen and scanned over the Internet will be reduced.

Google our names frequently. We may accidentally posted something on someone else's profile that came back to us and cause us the biggest fright of our lives. If it onvolves a certain email address, try to change it to another one.

On the subject of email addresses, sometimes the attempt to appear funny may stretch too long that we tend to forget that imasloth@gmail.com or havdhots bla bla are not meant to be given to our employers. A sensible thing to do is to be sensible and pick a more 'normal' emails that can save us from the trouble.

There are people who work for a charity organisation and such and cannot set the seting to be private. Well, keep monitoring your comments and posts as sadly, you will be held responsible for anything being posted by your friends. Its up to you how to carry this out whether by asking them nicely or just disable comments.

Honestly, I've never perceive the importance of screening what I put on the Internet but as I read the Reader's Digest for June 2008, I realized so many things that can put my future in jeopardy (luckily using different email addresses).

These are just some of the tips that I am able to jot on after reading the article 'How to Click and Clean?' on Reader's Digest June 2008.

*sources from the said magazine