People access social media platforms in every corner of modern life. People can use Twitter to broadcast their ideas along with their perspectives and life events to both their acquaintances and their professional network and everyone else online.
A job applicant faces potential consequences when their potential employer examines their Twitter activity during a career transition. When seeking career changes, should you remove your previous Twitter posts? You cannot find a definitive solution, but the following points should help you decide whether to clear your Twitter account.
The Case for Deleting Old Tweets
There are a few good reasons why someone making a career change might want to delete their old tweets:
1. Your Tweets Could Reveal Controversial Opinions
Over time, many people’s perspectives evolve. That joke you made 5 years ago that seemed harmless then may look offensive today. And even sincerely held beliefs from your past could be at odds with your potential new employer’s values. If your old tweets reveal viewpoints that don’t align with your desired career path, deleting them makes sense.
2. You May Have Shared Unprofessional Content
Similarly, you may have tweets that are simply unprofessional in nature. Partying pictures, inappropriate jokes, venting about old jobs – this type of content probably doesn’t convey the image you want as a job candidate. Removing it can help you put your best foot forward.
3. You Want a Fresh Start
For some career changers, joining a new industry or company represents a chance to reset their professional identities. Choosing to erase all tweets can be part of establishing this clean slate, ensuring that your digital footprint aligns with your new career goals.
Reasons to Keep Your Tweets
However, there are also a few reasons you may want to keep your old tweets rather than erase your entire Twitter history:
1. It Builds Your Personal Brand
The tweets you’ve published help demonstrate your interests, expertise, personality, and principles. This can serve your personal brand well in a job search. Showing that you have a longstanding passion for your new field makes you an attractive candidate, for example.
2. It Demonstrates Transparency
Rather than seeming like you have something to hide, keeping old tweets can indicate transparency. You aren’t afraid to let a potential employer see the real you.
3. It’s Impractical to Delete Everything
Your extensive tweeting history has most likely produced several thousand entries in your Twitter archive. The process of individual deletion would take an unreasonable amount of time for all the tweets. The task of manual deletion may become too time-consuming to continue at some stage.
4. Your Tweets aren’t that Bad
Before hastily deleting everything, review your tweets objectively. If there are just a few mildly embarrassing or irrelevant tweets scattered among mostly positive content, you may decide there’s no good reason to erase your history.
Key Factors to Consider With Your Own Tweets
So should you delete your old tweets or not? There’s no universal answer. Here are some key factors to consider:
- The specific job and industry culture. The standards for an academic researcher are very different than those for a sales executive. Carefully consider if any past tweets go against the culture of your target role or sector.
- The volume of concerning content. A few old jokes in poor taste are probably less risky than a long pattern of inflammatory opinions. Evaluate whether problematic tweets are anomalies or reflective of an underlying issue.
- How far back the content goes. People change, so a few inappropriate tweets from many years ago may be more understandable to an employer than recent eyebrow-raising posts.
- The effort required to delete. As mentioned, wiping your entire Twitter history can be an immense undertaking. The risks may not justify the effort, depending on how much you’ve tweeted.
By weighing these kinds of factors, you can make an informed choice about deleting old tweets in the context of a career transition. There are good arguments on both sides.
Alternatives to Deleting Everything
Erasing your entire Twitter history isn’t the only option, of course. Here are a few alternatives to consider:
Tighten up account privacy settings. Making your Twitter account private means only approved followers can see your tweets. This at least limits exposure while allowing you to retain your history.
Delete only recent concerning tweets. Rather than wiping your entire timeline, you could selectively remove tweets from the last few months or years. This is more practical than deleting everything.
Disable tagging ability. You can make it so other users can’t tag you in their tweets, preventing unwelcome associations from appearing on your profile.
Create a new professional account. Maintaining your existing Twitter account for personal use while launching a separate account for career purposes lets you compartmentalize.
Explain questionable tweets. If asked about a potentially controversial past tweet in an interview, have an answer prepared. Demonstrate personal growth rather than trying to sidestep responsibility.
Setting Your Twitter Up for Career Success
If you want your Twitter presence to positively contribute to your career goals rather than detract from them, here are some best practices to follow:
Craft an informative bio. The information in your bio must show qualifications that match your target positions. Professionals need to maintain briefness because recruiters only spend a short amount of time examining profiles.
Tweet valuable insights and commentary. Sharing articles, data, tips, and informed opinions related to your profession positions you as an expert in your field. With over 335 million users globally as of 2024, Twitter remains a vibrant platform for real-time communication and thought leadership.
Expand your relevant connections. Follow influencers at target companies, thought leaders in your sector, and professional organizations. Engage with their content.
Use Twitter Lists. Create Twitter Lists based on important career topics, which should include “Industry News” and “Potential Employers”. Share these lists publicly.
Review your tweets regularly. Review your latest tweets with a critical perspective, as you would make your professional profiles available to the public. Your goal should be to show your best professional qualities.
The Bottom Line
When transitioning careers, people face genuine arguments in favor of removing their old tweets versus keeping them intact. The specific elements in your case, along with your Twitter history, should serve as a basis for your decision-making process. The strategic use of Twitter as a professional asset should not be overlooked when you aim to achieve your career objectives. Your tweets can create positive impressions instead of warning signals when you make certain strategic changes.
