Face­book. Twit­ter. Jobs. Which one doesn’t belong? Believe it or not, none. Given the vast amount of time we col­lege age stu­dents spend on social media sites, it’s no won­der employ­ers increas­ingly turn to social media to research job appli­cants. For the aver­age Prince­ton stu­dent it’s easy to dress spiffy and speak intel­li­gently in an inter­view. But what about that other per­son you put out there for the world to see—the one before we get to the inter­view. In other words, Google Search your­self. Sur­prised, anyone?

Now most of us prob­a­bly don’t know what our Face­books look like to the aver­age employer. In fact, most stu­dents are pretty sure their accounts are pri­vate. But are you sure? Do you really know those pic­tures from last night are not front-and-center on your pro­file? Prob­a­bly, you don’t.

Here’s what to do. You can start by read­ing Facebook’s novel of a guide on Pri­vacy Con­trols. Here’ the short story ver­sion: every­one can see what Face­book calls “pub­lic infor­ma­tion,” includ­ing name pro­file pic­ture, gen­der, user­name, user ID (account num­ber), and your net­works. In other words, one of the most impor­tant thing you can do is keep the pro­file pic­ture professional.

UNLESS, that is, you Jason Bourne your pro­file. In other words, make your­self unsearch­able. Under Pri­vacy Set­tings, go to “How You Con­nect,” then “Who can look up your pro­file by name or con­tact info?” and select “Friends.” That way you won’t pop up when employ­ers search for you. For all but the forward-thinking few who use Face­book to speak elo­quently about cur­rent events, this is prob­a­bly a good thing.

Just to com­pli­cate things a lit­tle more, there’s the new Time­line for­mat. Don’t want employ­ers see­ing that “is O.M.G. Bobby is SOOOOO CUUUTTEE like lol” from 7th grade? Or the seven hun­dred sta­tus updates with a sim­i­larly test-infused lingo? You have two options. Either limit the vis­i­bil­ity of the spe­cific post (avail­able through the pull-down tab in the sta­tus update’s top right cor­ner) or, under Pri­vacy Set­tings, go to “Limit the Audi­ence for Past Posts,” and you’ll be able to limit your entire time­line to friends only.

But in case, like me, you’re already “friends” with poten­tial employ­ers, here’s the tricky part. With Facebook’s new set­tings, pri­vacy is often a case-by-case basis, mak­ing it all the more com­pli­cated. So while you might list one Wall post as only avail­able to “Close Friends,” another may be avail­able to “Every­one.” This goes for every­thing from per­sonal info to tagged pho­tos. So it’s a good idea to cus­tomize your default set­tings so that all your sta­tuses about Justin Bieber don’t imme­di­ately go pub­lic. (Guilty!)

Finally, the moment of truth: the best way to really see what your pro­file looks like to the aver­age employer, use a non-friend account to check it out. For most of you, this means Mom and Dad. Or you could just go to pri­vacy set­tings, click on “learn more,” click on “Pro­file” at the top, then go to the blue box near the bot­tom titled “know what oth­ers see on your pro­file. You may be quite surprised.

You can also, believe it or not, use social media to enhance your chance of get­ting a job. If you’re inter­ested in a field where cur­rency is key, join Twit­ter. It will help you get news in your field right when it hap­pens. Start by fol­low­ing your favorite sources of news or your favorite aca­d­e­mics. For instance, now that Cor­nel West is no longer on cam­pus, catch his words of wis­dom via Twit­ter. Then, don’t be afraid to join in the debates. If you have some­thing intel­li­gent to say, by all means, say it! Or, well, tweet it. This will not only keep you informed, but show employ­ers that you’re an active par­tic­i­pant in your prospec­tive field already!

For more infor­ma­tion about how to cre­ate an employer-friendly social media pres­ence check out this arti­cle on YouTern with a really great info-graphic on the sub­ject: ow.ly/8pXLu.