It occurred to me, about a half second after I hit send on an electronic application to a REAL job dealing with small children, that my other life as an unabashed sex columnist and general smut enthusiast could very well color my chances in other areas of employment, especially the kind with retirement benefits and/or brand identification. How does one compartmentalize several different skill sets and talents? Especially when the main two aren’t that compatible, like education policy and sex writing.

I just joined LinkedIn, at the prompting of several people, both online and off, and discovered that my mom is on there! (It’s like I don’t know you at all anymore!) As well as 90 other people whose email address I’ve accumulated over the course of the last five years. And now I’m slightly worried that all the paranoia articles about employers judging you by your Facebook status or Twitter updates are REAL and that no one will hire me unless I take all the references to boobs off of my online profiles, which is at the moment too painful to think about.

The thing is, I have legitimate experience in Communications, and I happen to love writing about sex too. I don’t want to have to tone down or cover up my writing persona, but I also don’t want to scare people off who don’t know me. Nor do I want to create completely separate profiles either. For one, because it’s confusing and I’d inevitably forget which is my “professional” site and my “sexy professional” site. For two, because the skills that I’ve accumulated can overlap. For instance, I learned about Search Engine Optimization while writing for Sex and the Windy City, which was also a skill required for a Communications Manager/Social Networking position at the nonprofit I just applied to.

Does anyone have experience with this kind of disjointedness? How do you cope?

On a completely unrelated note, if you type in “Why does…” into Google, these are the most commonly searched questions: