Your Professional Digital Footprint

The digital footprint is one of the most stressed points that I make to my students, as they prepare to enter a professional field. As they are introducing themselves into the surgical field, I find it important to impress upon them, they are a “walking resume” from day one.

People often say, “it’s a small world” and they don’t realize how true that really is. I tell my students that the medical community is small but the surgical community is even smaller. I impress that everything that they do, say or put on Facebook, is another line written in their resume. If they work hard, conduct themselves with integrity and have pride in their profession, their resume will shine. However, if they berate someone on Facebook or Twitter and show pictures of themselves that others could view as negative, then they are limiting their possibilities.

I searched my own digital footprint and found that things were pretty benign. I have tried to brand myself as a professional and represent my profession and myself with integrity. Aside from a couple of politically-charged opinion posts, I have stayed out of the “limelight”.

My opinion on today’s access to information and professionalism is, if you intend on representing yourself as a professional and building your reputation on integrity, you should think very closely to what you leave behind. 

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