Are your next employers looking at your Unvarnished profile?
Your professional and personal reputation is next up for review – by anybody – on the Unvarnished website. Unvarnished gives an opportunity for anyone to post their “review” of you as a person. While this could be an incredibly useful tool, in the end Unvarnished could end up more of a headache than it’s worth. In the end, we can only hope that Unvarnished doesn’t become a reason for banks to deny you the best personal loan rates.
Unvarnished bills itself as reputation management
Unvarnished is a website that invites you and others to post your “unvarnished” reviews of people. As a business tool, Unvarnished claims that it helps you “get recognition for your accomplishments and actively manage your career growth.” Any user can post a review, and any user can create their own profile. It appears that Unvarnished uses Facebook profiles to “verify” identity – which means if you have no Facebook profile, you cannot post or claim Unvarnished profiles. The Facebook link also means that Unvarnished will be much easier to cheat than a payday loan company – because a “verified” Facebook profile is just about anything but.
The problem with Unvarnished
The problem that Unvarnished presents is much the same as Yelp and RipOffReport.com. These websites can provide a very valuable service and caveat emptor reviews. However, there are always two sides to every story. Unvarnished claims to have a “community” system that will help keep bad reviews in check. However, the simple reality of Unvarnished is that, like every other review website, unhappy people are much more likely to speak out than happy people. This means that Unvarnished could present an unvarnished – if very skewed – view of you.
Should I get an Unvarnished account?
So, yes, Unvarnished review could be very skewed. And yes, Unvarnished could provide a real pain some days. However, in the end, most professionals and businesspeople would do well to get an Unvarnished account. If nothing else, knowing what others are saying about you is important – especially if it is negative. Unvarnished is one more place to keep an eye out for feedback, and respond if you need to. Most especially in a difficult job market, keeping a close eye on your reputation on places like Unvarnished is important.
