What happens on Facebook, Stays on Facebook?
What happens on Facebook, Stays on Facebook?
Think again.
A new phenomenon is sweeping the world and once again it’s thanks to the internet. According to a leading global headhunter, online social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, to name just two – and known as a person’s “network reputation” or “net-rep” – are becoming almost as important as one’s Curriculum Vitae and employment references.
Don’t end up naked in front of the whole world
Debbie, the managing director of and executive headhunting outfit, says a person’s online profile, possibly featuring risqué happy snaps and other professionally inappropriate bits of information, has the potential to extinguish that big corporate job you may be rooting for.
Even outside the headhunting profession, ‘googling a person’ can bring surprising results especially through his or her entries in Facebook and MySpace.
Fix your profile
“Cyber-vetting” is an easy way to find out more about potential employees and/or the girl you met at a party. I have edited the profiles I hung up in those sites more than once when I wanted a particular person or company to see more or less of me. And I am very careful about putting up any photographs. Pictures show how old you are! But, as many hopefuls have found out on dating sites, the photo doesn’t always belong to the candidate. Anyone can look like George Clooney!
There’s more…
Recruiters have learned to cyber-vet potential candidates either to find confirmation that the job seeker is in fact the expert in the field they claim to be, or to access other general details. A rather frightening truth about the Internet is that whatever is posted generally stays there. How does one remove an old posting from the web?
An angry ex-girlfriend’s blog outburst or an innocently posted revealing photograph that may have found its way onto Flickr or Facebook is potentially trouble. Once it’s out there, it’s there to stay and it will be accessible indefinitely. All of this may appear next to professional endorsements and expert commentary that the job seeker has been cited for, providing a view of a candidate that is much more ‘revealing’ than one might desire in the professional context.
It may also show the candidate to be the expert he claims to be or an absolute fake. It’s easy to flip through a person’s personal pages and put together a perception of the candidate which may not be entirely accurate, depending on what’s accessible.
It’s not harmless fun
People regard networking sites as harmless fun, but you should be very aware of what you and your friends post onto public spaces on the Internet. Anyone and everyone can see them and there are criminals out there who use computers.
From a corporate perspective, the information can be quite detrimental as clients or employers could become privy to images of alcohol abuse, a lack of respect for one’s job or colleagues, or other evidence of inappropriate activities that don’t fit the ethics of the company.
Is your boss a computer freak?
If he is, remember that there is nothing to stop your current employer from conducting a little ‘cyber investigation’ of their own. Take control over what you put out there.
You do have to monitor the information that gets put out there about you, either that which you disclose yourself and that which is reported by others. However, I really take issue with employers looking up prospective employees’ personal profiles. It’s an invasion of privacy, and it also doesn’t reflect on how an employee will necessarily perform on the job. It’s like a personality test for employment. A person is subject to their employer’s rules from the moment they arrive at work until the moment they leave for the day, and what they do in their off time is their business unless it affects their work. Until that barrier is crossed, the company you work for should have no business whatsoever in your private life.