I was on another site reading some comments in regard to a CNN web story about how important a myspace or Facebook profile can be to a hiring manager. According to the story, a lot of hiring managers check online profiles of potential applicants and rule them out if they find such things as:
- Inappropriate photos (someone doing stupid stuff while drunk, photos of illegal activity, photos that are too sexual or lewd in nature)
- Posts complaining about previous employers and coworkers
- Material that is overly political, religious or inflammatory in nature (anti-gay statements for example)
- In some cases you may be excluded by comments your friends or relatives make on your page, for example if a friend posts on your wall something like: "Dude that boss was a real asshole, glad to see you stuck it to him!"
I googled myself and came up with only a few results, none of which are damaging to me. I also googled my two main emails and found no results whatsoever.
But do you think it's fair that hiring managers are using facebook profiles as a way to determine whether or not someone is suitable for hire?
The usual wisdom is that NOTHING is private online and you shouldn't put up things you don't want everyone to see.
I don't think a facebook profile should necessarily exclude someone but I also feel companies could use it as a tool to covertly discriminate against candidates on illegal grounds without penalty (for example if you see on a profile for "John Smith" that he is Christian and decide not to hire him for that reason or you see "Joe Brown" is a black person and decide not to hire him for that reason.
I guess the real questions here are:
How much info about you is a company entitled to before they interview you?
and
How large a role should your "off the clock" activities play in determining your eligibility for a job?
- Inappropriate photos (someone doing stupid stuff while drunk, photos of illegal activity, photos that are too sexual or lewd in nature)
- Posts complaining about previous employers and coworkers
- Material that is overly political, religious or inflammatory in nature (anti-gay statements for example)
- In some cases you may be excluded by comments your friends or relatives make on your page, for example if a friend posts on your wall something like: "Dude that boss was a real asshole, glad to see you stuck it to him!"
I googled myself and came up with only a few results, none of which are damaging to me. I also googled my two main emails and found no results whatsoever.
But do you think it's fair that hiring managers are using facebook profiles as a way to determine whether or not someone is suitable for hire?
The usual wisdom is that NOTHING is private online and you shouldn't put up things you don't want everyone to see.
I don't think a facebook profile should necessarily exclude someone but I also feel companies could use it as a tool to covertly discriminate against candidates on illegal grounds without penalty (for example if you see on a profile for "John Smith" that he is Christian and decide not to hire him for that reason or you see "Joe Brown" is a black person and decide not to hire him for that reason.
I guess the real questions here are:
How much info about you is a company entitled to before they interview you?
and
How large a role should your "off the clock" activities play in determining your eligibility for a job?
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