Wow, this is awfully sunshine and rainbows for you, bro.

In a super competitive recruitment, girls aren't looking to Facebook for ways that PNMs can impress them. They're looking for ways that they can cut the 8 zillion PNMs they know they'll have to cut.

One profile picture, head shot ONLY, and your HS and college is ALL that needs to be showing. Don't show your friends list either - you might be friends with someone a sorority member can't stand.

Put me down for a keep it private vote...just let non-friends see your picture (which should be appropriate, as everyone has said), your school, and if you wish your interests, just make sure you delete anything a little risque. I do not think it will hurt you to put your profile on private, and of course leaving it public without any limitations could cause far more problems than making it private could.

I vote for both as well. I keep mine basically on lockdown :p You can see my name (first and middle only), picture, high school, and college. That's it. But I also try and keep my facebook super clean! You just never know!

exactly!

We use facebook to refresh the memories of our members during membership selection. When you meet 100's of women in one day it is hard to remember who you have and haven't talked to. I would have a private profile so that the only thing we can see is a great profile picture that looks like you. No other people in the photo either. No boys, booze, bongs or sleaze types of things (sounds crazy but you would be surprised at what we see sometimes).

If you're an out-of-state PNM, or go to a geographically diverse university, your hometown is 9000000x more useful than your high school. If you're from a small town and you go to Cow Town High, that's one thing, but there are about 6000 St. Mary's and Episcopal and Central High School... a state and town are so much more useful. But for schools that tend to recruit out of the same area, high school may be more useful. Also, try to make your picture something interesting as well as tasteful, if possible (for instance, you next to a major landmark makes you stand out more than your generic senior portrait/glamour shot). I would also try to stick to the same profile picture for long periods of time, and try to be the only person in the picture.

I'd recommend as a general rule for anyone, whether or not they're rushing or even going to college, to keep it clean and private. Why depend on only one layer of security when you can do both?

In the future, when your network matters, your best job prospects are going to be through your acquaintances; in other words, Facebook friends. Also, with the ever changing privacy settings, you never know what can leak. This is all solved when you have nothing to leak. If you're like most college-aged people, you probably have >100 friends on FB; ask yourself: honestly, does everyone on there need to know about your not-so-clean activities?

A limited amount of privacy is good for extra measure.

Amen to this post! I feel like I'm still surprised at least once a week by what people put on facebook. I'm all about having a good time, but the photographic evidence doesn't need to be shared with the world.

The entire post is FaceBook worthy. The highlighted part is for recs - many GLOs ask for a head shot and a full length shot.

This doesn't quite make sense.

I only friend people who I know (before you ask, I consider some GCers people I know) and I don't think those people are about to show their employer, friend or whoever I'm supposedly getting a job from the picture of me balancing a beer bottle on my head.

And like many other people...I don't friend people I work with unless we are VERY close friends outside of work. It's just not worth it. Just because you see someone every day does not make them a friend in the true sense of the word - i.e. someone who cares about you.

Don't make a point of friending everyone from your high school/college/city/GLO and you really won't have problems. In other words...don't friend acquaintances. Friend FRIENDS.

This really depends on what you're using social media for.

This is sound advice for 18-year-old Suzy PNM, but for 27-year-old Amy Alumna, having a network of friends and acquaintances (Hey Amy -- I met you at the Industry Gala. Are you on FB?) is often useful.

And the topic of the thread is.......

Clean vs. Private: Which is better for a PNM

Amy Alumna can use LinkedIn if she wants to make career/job connections. That's what it's for.

The modern-day insistence on meshing your work life and your private life in every facet squicks me out. Everybody just lets it happen more and more every day and I don't think they realize how effed up it is. To speak for me, I give you Frank Pembleton.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixla8T8GVZI

I agree with this 33girl. Its like a lot of people were never taught boundaries, so with today's various electronic mediums they are unable to separate disparate aspects of their life.

Creates enormous potential for drama.

This is just slightly related but funny:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX2L5egeR7I