EMPLOYERS USE SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES TO RESEARCH CANDIDATES OR HOW TO TWITTER YOUR CAREER AWAY
SOMEONE just sent me and many others porno pix of themselves on Twitter (she is now blocked from following me). They now exist for eternity. Imagine how she will feel years from now when a prospective employer sees them.
It is so easy to broadcast our most scurrilous behaviors and the thrill must be very exciting to some people. Why else would the social networking sites be filled with Amy Winehouse-style tales of orgies, drugs and alcoholic stupors? People, listen, stop posting internet messages you wouldn’t want prospective employers or customers to read. Employers use social networking sites to research candidates. It is an absolute fact. Don’t Twitter your career away.
I know you have opinions and you believe they are valid and important. But also believe this, not everyone agrees with you and anyone can read your comments. All those social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter provide voyeuristic access to anyone who wants to vet you before they invite you to interview, do business with you or accept your offer to consult.
Opinions are like belly buttons; everybody has one. Don’t let yours limit your career and business options. Voicing them publicly changes no ones mind, affects no positive outcome and garners you no accolades. Keep your opinions private. Share them with close friends, but don’t use the internet as your podium.
One in five employers uses social networking sites to research prospective employees. In smaller companies, the percentages are higher, especially for technology companies. It is so simple to Google the name of a prospective employee or someone on the radar that it is almost a given. Facebook and Twitter (and other) users can locate your name and comments at a click of a mouse. And even if you think you deleted an incriminating entry, there is no proof someone hasn’t copied it, shared it or achieved it.
The more senior your position, the more likely you will be researched on-line. There are no laws to protect you from people losing interest in interviewing you because they don’t agree with your political choices. There is no way for you to detect when, even with an introduction, you are not invited to meet with someone because they did a quick search and discovered you engage in drunken orgies, or you are an avid moose hunter, or support drilling in Alaska when the reader doesn’t.
Each year our lives become less private. Every time you join a social network or post your biography, you increase the chance anyone can find out even the most unpleasant of your secrets; so don’t share them. And hard as it is to do, stop sharing your opinions; there is no positive outcome.
Happy that your Facebook and Myspace accounts are cleared up? Now take a look at the sites where your photos are posted. Don’t forget, once people start to research you, anything is fair game. As a rule, only post pictures or messages you would send to your mother.
Career advice, Job Search Tools, Recruiters, Resume Advice, Uncategorized
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Career advice, executive jobs. employment advice, internet privacy, social networking sites
Themocracy
I understand, nix on opinions at the social networking sites. But what about forums such as MLB.com or newsvine.com (or this)? I suppose these might be traceable back to me through my profile (I of course do not use my real name). If I cannot voice my opinions to anyone but my closest friends, then what is the point of Free Speech? Certainly anonymous posts on opinion sites are acceptable. Are they?