Houston, we might have another Cisco Fatty on our hands!

I belong to a few online/email groups and came across an email from a young lady who’d gotten into some hot water because she tweeted about a potential job offer after snagging and acing the interview.

One problem.

She tweeted the company’s name and possibly that the person in the current position might be getting fired.

Yes, she said all of this on Twitter.  

Ouch.  *shudder*

Imagine her surprise when she got an email from the HR manager telling stating she was bothered by the applicant’s decision to tweet company information in Twitter.

First, if you know me then you know that I think companies are going a bit too far with checking on applicants using social networking sites like twitter and Facebook.

My second question was why did she tweet company businesses out to the Twitasphere like that?  I know we all have moments like these but I think what took me for a loop was the applicant’s intended response which in mine and other’s opinions was most unapologetic, and sounding like she was starving for a piece of humble pie.  

Having been out of work for close to a year, she needed this job to work out.  But she wanted to tell this HR manager that she had no contract with them for emplyment and did not plan to tone down her personality to suit them especially when she tweeted about the situation due to her excitement about the position, not because she had any ill intent in disclosing the good news (for her) albeit, company business.

Well, considering that they were planning to fire someone in order to vacate the position for her, that’s where things get sticky.  Any number of legal scenarios coud come up and Im sure this company just wanted to make sure they dotted all their Is and crossed all Ts before moving forward.

In the end she acquiesced and wrote a letter explaining that she was just so excited about the position and didnt think about the consequences of tweeting such sensitive information.

But let this be a lesson to all of you quarter lifers and even you social media types, save your personalty and sass for happy hour and get on the straight and narrow when it comes to your day job.

Here are a few tips to avoid the above situation:

1. Use a separate email account for Twitter and Facebook, this is how your boss and other superiors will find you
2. Remove your profile from public search results on Facebook
3. Remove your picture from Facebook search results and don’t enable your profile to be tagged on Facebook
4. Don’t put your picture on Twitter if you really want to Tweet with wreck-less abandon
5. Don’t put any personally identifiable information about yourself on Twitter
6. Don’t Tweet about your day job, EVAR. Period. End of story. Leaveitalone!
7. Dont share information you aren’t comfy with your mother or boss knowing.  Twitter is a bit more open than Facebook unless your profile is locked/protected.  Say something RT worthy and watch is spread like swine flu

“Soooo, when are you guys planning on having children?”

“You’re going to be pregnant by the end of 2010 right?”

“You guys are waiting awfully long to have kids arent you?”

“When are you going to join the rest of us?”

“So ..is there a problem, when y’all gonna bless us with some kids!!!  What’s the hold up!?”

To which we reply, “in due time, we’re on our own time line…“  It doesn’t help that I am planning to apply to a doctoral program and am now met with frowns and questions around how I plan to make it all happen.  I honestly want to tell people to mind their frigging business! This is my womb, not yours!  It’s bad enough that I have the burden of sacrificing the time in my life where I reach my highest earning potential.

There are days when I think we should have gotten pregnant in our first year and there are days when I’m happy that we are waiting.  Then there are days when I think I should just leave it all up to happenstance but if you know me, and know me well, then you know I can’t live life like that.  Everything needs to be planned down to the last detail.  My mom and I were discussing possible nanny options just in case I do get pregnant during the program because I have no plans on quitting half way through.  Enough women have gone down this path for me to know that it is possible.  And, she gave me a few people that I’d be able to consider when the time comes.  I don’t foresee doing this all by myself.  I’m even toying with getting pregnant with twins to lessen the amount of time I’d be pregnant as I’m not looking forward to going through childbirth more than once?

Aside: Do any of you obsess about this as much as I do?

As I plan out the next 3-5 years of my life (and yes you should be too) I need to think about whether or not we should start having children this year but I risk being pregnant during my program interview OR giving birth right before the interview and neither are preferable options for me.  Why can’t I be pregnant on the program interview?  Well, do you think a major corporation would hire a woman who is 6 months pregnant?  Nope!  It’s sad, that being pregnant would make professors and adcomms question my ability to be committed to the program and that they aren’t more flexible in this regard.  But these are the hands I’ve been dealt as a woman so Im learning to roll with the punches.

I dare not ask or make the statement “they wouldn’t ask my husband how the kids will be taken cared of or if he would still be as committed to his job..”  And that’s because as women we are looked upon as primary caregivers because well, we carry the kid for 9 months! I’m totally fine with that, believe it or not.

2009 is the first year I will have FREE of graduate school, working in a field I love and being able to spend more free time with my husband.  We met in graduate school and I just feel that I want more time as a free spirited married couple with no obligations other than to pay our bills on time, so that’s part of it as well.  But in 2010 I will need to figure out how and when we will pull off having our first child.  At this point, I think the best option will be to have a baby in my first year as I hear that is the easiest because of the lighter course load or get pregnant now and have the baby before interviews are slated to begin in 2010.

Decisions, decisions.

Any advice for me and what I should do?  Have any of you been in this situation where you had to balance educational and career endeavors with family planning?