Is your facebook profile costing you jobs?

[Argabarga]

I guess the real questions here are:

How much info about you is a company entitled to before they interview you?

As much as they can dig up legaly without breaking any laws.

How large a role should your "off the clock" activities play in determining your eligibility for a job?

As much as they feel it due.

Though I can afford to be kinda carefree and cavalier, I don't have a facebook page, a twitter account, a cell phone or a personal website (well, not anymore) so you'll have to get off your butt and dig through my trash cans to get any dirt on me.

[iradney]

If they were to see my FB page, I think they'd die of boredom. Got pictures of food, my future husband, my family, friends and my dog.

[dbuzman]

NONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What I do off the clock is none of their business!!!

I will stick to that to my dying day.

This is exactly how I feel.

[MrTim]

Facebook cost me a potential job. I know this because I applied for a company and then did a phone interview that (I thought) went well. I followed up a few days later and the HR lady was very condecending to me. She displayed her dislike of motorcycles and also did not appreciate that I had such a lack of experience for a man of my age. When I said that I did not have, nor have ever driven a motorcycle, she snapped at me.

Human Resource Biddy
Me

HRB - Well I SAW YOU on a Harley Davidson sir. We have many ways to check into potential employees and I don't appreciate your dishonesty.
Me - Ma'am, I assure you I have no motorcycle. I have never driven, on one in any way shape or form.
HRB - SIR, you can't decieve me, I SAW IT WITH MY OWN EYES!
Me - That's is 100% false. I don't know what you think you saw, but it was not me.
HRB - You people need to learn that the internet is not truly private.
Me - [Finally piecing everything together] Wait, did you look up a myspace or Facebook profile?
HRB - [Extremelly condecending and self-righteous] Human Resource professionals have many tools at our disposal, SIR.
Me - Interesting. My father has several pictures of himself on his Facebook page, and I am a Junior so we have the same name. You were looking at a picture of my father.
HRB - [Sound of a gasp] I, um, well... I didn't...
Me - You know what, I have no desire to work for your company now if that is how you Human Resource professionals operate.
Click.

I give it that my name is somewhat unique, but to use a Facebook page as a source of evidence is laughable. It's like crediting a wikipedia page as a valid source of information. I thought about notifying that company's corporate headquarters, but I let it go.

[Cookie]

If anybody uses my online profiles as an excuse to not hire me or fire me, I will rip them a new one. Publicly. My non-incognitocook personality is also a podcaster/blogger that has connections to some big blogs and podcasts that occasionally end up being featured on national news TV stations. The story would get out and it would get out in a big way.

Facebook is where I talk with a lot of my friends as they are scattered all over the world. What I say to my friends is my business. If an employer or potential employer eavesdropped on me and my friends and refused to hire me or fired me because of it, 20 kinds of shit would be hitting the fan. It's an invasion of privacy.

What I do in my off time is none of their business, even if it involved getting completely plastered and dancing on coffee tables naked. (It doesn't.) As long as I show up to work clothed, sober, and professional it shouldn't matter. That's the only part of my life my boss is in charge of.

[Magpie]

Me - Interesting. My father has several pictures of himself on his Facebook page, and I am a Junior so we have the same name. You were looking at a picture of my father..

This, and this only, is why I put a picture on my LinkedIn profile. I don't like that it allows for pictures, but it does prevent that sort of confusion. (And given that the whole point of LinkedIn is for it to get me hired, I rather expect it to be seen by employeers).

[telecom_goddess]

This, and this only, is why I put a picture on my LinkedIn profile. I don't like that it allows for pictures, but it does prevent that sort of confusion. (And given that the whole point of LinkedIn is for it to get me hired, I rather expect it to be seen by employeers).

See now LinkedIn is where employers should be be looking for employee information, that's what it's for. I have no real personal info on there....cause it's a BUSINESS networking site not personal social networking. Plaxo is another good one for that.

They can look there all they want but leave facebook and myspace the hell alone

[mikoyan29]

As one of those people that wouldn't post something that would come back to bite me, this doesn't bother me. However, given that many names are not unique (the best example Joe Smith), how can a potential employer know that they are looking at the right person? As one of the examples above pointed out. As a person who thinks that what I do on my time is my business, I think that some employers want too much control over their employees. I can understand an employer that may require a security clearance but not some of the other issues that seem to come up in thiese sorts of things.

Besides, if they look at my facebook page, they would see that I'm a wolverine and probably wouldn't hire me...

[draftermatt]

I do not have a Facebook, don't plan on getting one.

I didn't have a Myspace for years, but after all my friends and family kept bugging me my wife and I signed up. Within 5 months they had stopped logging in to Myspace and were bugging us to join Facebook. We have refused.

My Myspace is private, all you're going to see is my picture (at Disney World with Donald Duck) and I think my current "status" which I make sure not to complain about my work life there.

That said there are (apparently) many people with my name, so I don't even show up on google. And my e-mail that I use for job applications is only used for that.

When I've hired people I tell them "I don't care what you do in your free time as long as it doesn't affect your work. If it starts affecting your work then I will start to care, so don't make me care please."

I've told my boss that my personal time/life is just that, and that if it's not affecting work then it's none of his business.

The only place I look up potential employees under is the Maryland Judicial Case Search, to see if they've ever had legal trouble they're not telling me about.

[MrTim]

When I've hired people I tell them "I don't care what you do in your free time as long as it doesn't affect your work. If it starts affecting your work then I will start to care, so don't make me care please."

I've told my boss that my personal time/life is just that, and that if it's not affecting work then it's none of his business.

The only place I look up potential employees under is the Maryland Judicial Case Search, to see if they've ever had legal trouble they're not telling me about.

Everything you mentioned is absolutely dead on.

This, and this only, is why I put a picture on my LinkedIn profile. I don't like that it allows for pictures, but it does prevent that sort of confusion. (And given that the whole point of LinkedIn is for it to get me hired, I rather expect it to be seen by employeers).

My initial interview was over the phone - she never actually saw my face. I'm fairly sure she was doing a search to save time on actual, in-person interviews. Once she found my fathers profile, she assumed it was me and didn't call me back, and my story starts when I followed up on the phone interview.

[NorthernZel]

Everything on my FaceBook is set to "friends only". And even then I'm very cautious about what I post, remove image tags if I deem the tag to be unflattering, my "personal info" page is empty except from birthday and marital status, etc.

There is much focus on FB privacy settings in the media over here, since a couple of days ago one of the spindoctors in Parliament was forced to resign, after some of her FB spoutings (including harassment of a cafeteria employee + insults at the Royal Family) were published in the media.

[Andara Bledin]

I simply do not do the online social page crap. I do not see why I need to update my every move for random people.

Some people need the validation of having followers, contacts, etc.

And you'd only be updating your status for semi-random people.

I update my status with lyrics as often as anything else, and I only update sporadically.

Social networking sites are good for just that: social networking. I keep up with events for my family, for my gaming convention, for updates on tv shows, bands, artists, etc, etc, etc.

^-.-^

[Pedersen]

I probably shouldn't, but I'll chime in here.

As an employee, I am entitled to know the following about any potential employer:

1. Everything related to the job I am applying for.
2. Everything public about the company.

As an employer, I am entitled to know the following about any potential employee:

1. Everything related to the job being applied for.
2. Everything public about the employee.

You've posted something on a billboard for everybody to see? Why am I not allowed to see it, just because I'm a potential employer? And yes, that is a good analogy, since that's what Facebook, Myspace, and any others are: An electronic billboard. Whatever you post there is available for any and all to see.

That, though, is where the problem comes in: People post to these sites thinking these are just private conversations between them and their friends without realizing that these conversations are visible to anybody with an internet connection.

If I do get the chance to be an employer, will I look people up on the internet? Certainly. Why would I not? Will that be the arbiter of who does and does not get a job? Only if that's the last differentiator between them, or I've found something so incredibly changing about them (and confirmed that I am looking at pages about them) that it took them out of the running.

Example: I've got two applicants. John Doe and Jim Smith. Both are equal in the ways that matter to me. I look them up. John Doe, going by his postings, hates the technologies we use at my company. Jim Smith, on the other hand, seems to love them. Jim Smith gets the job.

Example: Same two applicants. John Doe's search turns up nothing positive or negative. Jim Smith loves the technologies we use. Seems like he's a good fit, until I find out that Jim Smith is a known spammer. Jim Smith is now out of the running, and John Doe gets the job.

Example: Same two applicants. John Doe's search turns up nothing positive or negative. Jim Smith, though, has issues. He's posted about his inability to control himself. He's blogged about desires that are considered quite unacceptable (put in whatever ones you don't like there). Maybe, the're sexual, maybe they're racial, maybe he has severe mood swings, whatever. All of these things, though, lead me to believe that he has sufficient issues that his presence would be disruptive to the workplace I've established. John Doe gets the job.

Good reasons to perform the searches, I think. All of them produce quite acceptable results that are strongly beneficial to me, to my company, and to my current employees.

You may disagree, you may dislike it, you may think of me as an evil person. I'll disagree, and say that if you don't want me to eavesdrop on your private conversations, then make them private. If you email each other, or post behind some sort of wall that blocks Google (and me) from reading it, you're golden. I won't know, and I won't care.

But if you spray it all over a billboard, expect it to be seen and read by the people you really didn't want to see or read it.

[Magpie]

My initial interview was over the phone - she never actually saw my face. I'm fairly sure she was doing a search to save time on actual, in-person interviews. Once she found my fathers profile, she assumed it was me and didn't call me back, and my story starts when I followed up on the phone interview.

Oh, I know it wouldn't have worked in your situation, but that woman wasn't using it properly.

I always saw employers searching the internet for info on employees as a case of them checking to see if the employee knew how to be discrete. Do you keep your pictures of you getting drunk/rants about your boss/evidence of breaking the law where only certain people can see it? Yay! You know how to set boundaries. (A lot of people really don't bother, and bring all their personal drama to work).

Then again, I'm in a field where I can't actually get my professional credentials without character references, so I'm used to different standards.

[BeeMused]

But if you spray it all over a billboard, expect it to be seen and read by the people you really didn't want to see or read it.

<Putting on CEO hat>I completely agree, when we are in the process of hiring someone we do check facebook etc. and do Google searches, for exactly the reasons you stated. And yes some people weren't hired because of the things we found. Online checks are one of the many tools we have to use to cut through the huge stack of applications we get, when we look for a new employee. Some weird party pictures from your last holiday? Who cares! Daily pictures showing you drunk? Um, not something we look for in a driver.
When we do these checks the person has already been shortlisted in our hiring process, the others didn't make it for reasons like too many spelling mistakes, or dog ears, or wrong qualifications, or whatever. Hiring is never fair, sometimes it's just luck.</Removing CEO hat>