Vocations · Professional Development

Search yourself
before they do.

Recruiters, admissions readers and scholarship committees can search your name. Do it first: list every profile, post and listing that shows up, decide what to keep, fix or remove, and tick off the clean-up and security steps. The checklist keeps count and tells you when to look again.

Start a reviewWhat you get

Reviews

The worked example is made up: a job search review with an old blog and a people-search listing still to remove, and a student review from March with multi-factor sign-in still off. Records save on this device only.

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What you get

Vocations · Professional DevelopmentAlso for Academics · Subject ResourcesFree

What you finish with
A record per review with the date, purpose and where you searched; every result with who can see it, what to do and whether it is done; seven clean-up and four security checks; counts of results, public results and open changes, and flags for open changes, a review more than six months old and checks not yet done.
Who it is for
Job and internship seekers, high school and college students applying to colleges and scholarships, and the families and teachers helping them.
Format
Browser checklist with a saved record per review. Prints one review, all of them or a blank form; downloads a spreadsheet (.csv); exports and imports a file.
Access
Free. No account, no sign-in and nothing to install. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Professional Development space in Caveat Vocations; also listed in the Subject Resources space (for students and families).
Support
Questions about access, an order or a correction: team@caveatacademic.com.

How to use it

  1. Sign out, or use a private window, and search your name in quotes with your town or school.
  2. Add every profile, post, photo and listing that shows up, and who can see it.
  3. Decide for each: keep, clean up, make private, delete or update.
  4. Work through the clean-up and security checks.
  5. Search again in six months, and before applications go out.

Start a review

Public, private and in between

Who can see whatyouOnly youDrafts, saved posts, private accountsFriends or followersCan still be screenshotted and sharedAnyone who searchesRecruiters, admissions readers,scholarship committeesWho can see whatyouOnly youDrafts, saved posts, private accountsFriends or followersCan still be screenshotted and sharedAnyone who searchesRecruiters, admissions readers,scholarship committees
A private setting narrows the circle; it does not erase what was already copied. Treat anything posted as if it might reach the outer ring.

Removing what you can

You can delete your own posts and accounts and untag yourself. For a post someone else made, ask them, or use the platform’s reporting tools if it breaks the rules. People-search sites collect public records; most have an opt-out form, and you may need to repeat it, since listings come back. Search results can lag behind: once a page is gone, search engines drop it over time.

Build what you want found

The easiest way to push an old post down is to put something better above it: an up-to-date professional profile, a portfolio of real work, a club or volunteer page. Use the same name and photo on the profiles you want people to find.

Sources

  1. Federal Trade Commission. How To Protect Your Privacy Online (consumer.ftc.gov).
  2. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Secure Our World: turn on multifactor authentication and use strong passwords (cisa.gov/secure-our-world).
  3. National Institute of Standards and Technology. Digital Identity Guidelines, SP 800-63B: long passwords and password managers (nist.gov).
  4. Federal Trade Commission. Consumer advice for teens and families on sharing and privacy settings on social networks (consumer.ftc.gov).

The worked example is made up. Platforms change their privacy settings often; check each one’s current controls. Nothing you type is sent to Caveat. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.