Posted on 02/01/2012 9:45:08 AM PST by Mechanicos
More job candidates are being hired on the basis of what shows up on their social network pages, versus those one or two sheets of paper that are either emailed or snail-mailed into human resource departments.
(Excerpt) Read more at smartplanet.com ...
The HR dept at work looks thru social media outlets to ween out candidates. They use it as a way to see a persons true character (ie BAD character). Some people are very stupid and it’s HR’s job to keep them away from the hardworking, intelligent ones.
“The HR dept at work looks thru social media outlets to ween out candidates.”
Not all do, some are too busy playing farmville to worry about hiring the best person.......
I’m in the legal field. We Google people all the time for a variety of reasons.
Facebook pages and Twitter accounts can be very revealing.
We had a person suing for major damages claiming a variety of injuries. Her Twitter account revealed that she was living a quite active life, in direct contradiction to her supposed ailments.
If was screening candidates, the Internet would be a negative indicator only (beer bong or Lingerie pics). Anyone with a big Internet footprint would not be hired because it tells me:
1) He/she is stupid (putting personal info on the Internet invites ID fraud)
2) He/she is self-absorbed
3) He/she is a time waster (those of us who WORK for a living don’t have time for all that crap — a few FReeps is about all we have time for)
Hire these idiots at your peril.
What we do see, is cases where a FaceBook page of someone face down, drunk in the gutter - getting their resume' discarded. Life is rough enough, without giving your potential employers damning evidence. FaceBook will NEVER get you a job; but it will certainly prevent you from getting one, as well as get you fired if you post something derogatory about either the company, your boss or your co-workers.
It's best to never have a FaceBook page at all. The internet NEVER forgets. The other piece of free advice I'll throw out there, is "Give some thought to your email address". When I worked at a company, I got a resume with the email "got12incheswhatugot@hotmail.com". Now, if this is your personal email, that's fine ... don't care. But, before getting tossed, we did pass the resume' around the lab and all had a good laugh at it. If you must have an email of this nature, I would suggest getting a serious email for business work as well.
For example, mine is first.lastname@gmail.com.
If you are hiring a(n)(insert name of favorite group here) Outreach Coordinator, social media or (more likely) software matters because you have a ton of candidates to sort through. If you are hiring a field welder, only the skill set matters, because if you don't make a decision soon, then one of your competitors will.
Create two facebook profiles, one for friends that uses a pseudonym and one with your real name that is minimalistic and “work safe”.
Or delete an FB account if you want to get hired?
Facebook pages are easily hidden. You can set it to not come up in any search engine.
A little while back I changed jobs. I am on the upper end of the pay scale and got the full and through exam. The HR person did not like the fact that I did not have a twitter or Facebook account. This was told to my face at the board review.
My response shocked them. I told them that I don’t want people to know me, know of me, know where I live. I keep that information very restricted. When the HR lady asked if I had something to hide I told her yes. The very lives of my children and my wife.
You see, I have designed security systems and disaster recovery systems for some very large international banks. And some of those banks are located in places like Turkey, Jordan and Egypt. I do not want to expose my family to any potential threats.
The board passed my unanimously.
Either having an account or not having an account seems to be a form of double jeopardy that can cause problems either way. For now, I continue to err on the side of caution.
That should depend entirely on the nature of the footprint. For instance, if I were hiring a software engineer, a good blog would be a big plus, especially if his posts attract a lot of intelligent comments. As would open participation in open source projects.
Agreed.
I never understood the hysteria about Facebook. Just lock it down and be highly selective about who you friend. I have a cardinal rule that I will not be Facebook friends with anyone I share an employer with. It’s just that simple.
I also use a different email address for professional correspondence.
Lastly, keep your LinkedIn page open and polished. That’s what you want a potential employer to see!
Your life, your job ... do whatever you want. But, even if your FaceBook account is only open to friends and family - there was a case just last month where an employee was fired for making a personal post, that one of his 'friends' decided to show his boss.
FaceBook cannot help you, it can only kill you professionally. If you insist on it; don't post anything, or any picture that you wouldn't mind seeing prominently displayed in your Supervisor's office. Even if you terminate your account today, anything you posted may have been copied somewhere else, or on someone else's FaceBook account. The internet NEVER forgets.
If you are applying for a high level position, companies pay outside investigators to conduct research on job applicants. These outside investigators can "do things" that the company can/will disavow, and could never do itself. But, it's entirely up to you - I suggest you avoid it like the plague.
No, it shouldn't. It's stupid. It's ALWAYS stupid. You're an idiot if you even know what the interwebs is. Only long-haired hippy faggots use the dangblasted thing, consarnit. If you've even thought about Bookface or whatever the hell those dumb kids call it, you're a reject and should be put in prison, you idiot. Wasting your time on this nonsense is just nonsense. Don't be stupid! AHAAHaaaAHHHsHaHAHA#$@*!!R#@$!
The internet NEVER forgets ... ever. Any picture you have ever posted, could find it's way to other FaceBook friends. And, perhaps you were not aware that FaceBook is 'free' because they sell information. What information do you suppose that contains? Friends and family ....Your personal information is't private - it's in the disclosure you clicked through. Why do you think FaceBook is worth $450+ Billion?
There was a story just last month about a man who was fired, because a co-worker "Friend" showed the boss a post that was made that was less than flattering. Some friend, huh? But the case remains, FaceBook got a guy fired. I would suggest never having an account - because what seems like a fun and festive picture today; can have dire consequences tomorrow.
And, as Michele Rafter explains at the Second Act site, there are some interactive techniques that jobhunters should employ in order to increase their marketability. (I like the term “presume,” short for presentation resume.) The ideal “presume” could include an online interactive slide presentation (SlideRocket is the platform cited), an infographic (yikes), a video resume, a something still printed — but on something unusual, with lots of eye-popping graphics.
Trust me: do NOT submit a "presume".
But deleting an account simply ends any friendships, period, because it is gone.
There are many ways to use Facebook. You don’t have to post photos or anything personal at all. You can just use it to keep up with friends, family and various organisations you are interested in.
No, not really. If you want to post professionally, then the appropriate social media site would be LinkedIn - however, even this is 'dangerous'. Any picture, any comment, any article can be recovered - years later, and used against you. In cases where you compete against fellow employees for appraisals and your review; you can expect fellow employees to research this, and give it to your boss to use against you. I've witnessed this at 3 companies firsthand.
People who work on Open Source material, generally use a pseudonym because if they work for a company, and they used an algorithm or technique they learned or developed while at work - they can be sued or fired. No good deed goes unpunished.
Participation on Open Source projects, during employment periods tells me that this is an individual who had time to waste, and opted not to spend that time and energy getting my company's work done. If any project that has ever touched that employee's hands is late, or of less than stellar quality - and he's spending time writing Open Source software - well, draw your own conclusions.
It's a rough, mean, competitive and crushing world out there. It's even worse with unemployment, companies off-shoring and hiring H1-B foreign engineers. There is nothing to be gained from Social Media, and everything to lose.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.