Is your facebook profile costing you jobs?

[BeeMused]

Because the avatar pic i use is a fox fursona.

Well, that wouldn't be a problem with us, when the owner loves to cross-dress and even does it now, despite having had a stoke and sitting in a wheelchair. Given the nature of the things we sell, no fetish weirds us out.

[Andara Bledin]

Because the avatar pic i use is a fox fursona.

The same pic you use here, or something different?

I'm always explaining the oddest thing to my bosses and co-workers. They tend to turn to me or the boyfriend any time any fandom-related anything comes up.

I'd just as soon have a furry pic up as an avatar (I just use my own pic on Facebook, but I have a gallery of my CoX characters as well as a full shot of the pic my avatar here comes from on there as well), and not get hired at a place that would have an issue with my being a furry than not, as I tend to be rather outspoken and intolerant of ignorant bigotry.

^-.-^

[taxguykarl]

Here's some advice on using Facebook. Full disclosure: I don't have an account or profile.

If you're going to post pics of yourself using a crack pipe, don't be surprised to find yourself not hired or even fired. As some COC posts show, drinkers do not make the most reliable workers. As many jobs require you to be present and reasonably healthy, a FB profile can give a reasonable indication of reliability.

[Mishi]

I use Facebook to keep up with friends that are on the other side of the country or in other states. I keep everything set as friends-only, the only things that show on my profile to non-friends are: my birthday (not year though), my hometown, my marital status and (I think) my current pic. I don't think it would have any effect on my employability as I'm careful about what I say/show.
It is a public place, which is why I deleted my mum's questions about when/where my daughters swimming lessons are. Yeah this happened

[tropicsgoddess]

I set everything to friends only. Nothing majorly interesting for anyone to see on my facebook profile. I still try and be careful, if it's not you, sometimes it's what other people can post on their profile or yours (i.e. tagging crazy pics of you, etc.).

[TOLady]

Here's some advice on using Facebook. Full disclosure: I don't have an account or profile.

I totally agree with this:

"Losing By Association
You can't control what your friends post to your profile (although you can remove it once you see it), nor what they post to their own profiles or to those of mutual friends. <snip>"

I have one friend whose avatar was of a very questionable nature (she was eventually deleted (not sure if that's the correct terminology) by facebook because of it and had to get a new account and changed her picture.

Everytime she would post on my page, I cringed. My Mother is a Friend and I didn't really think it was something she needed to see.

[Andara Bledin]

"Losing By Association
You can't control what your friends post to your profile (although you can remove it once you see it), nor what they post to their own profiles or to those of mutual friends. <snip>"

While good commentary about being careful about who you're friends with, you've always had a measure of control. Until last night, nobody but me (and applications I had allowed) could post anything to my wall. As of yesterday, anyone can post to my wall, but the only person who can see those posts is me, so it still won't affect people's perception of me.

^-.-^

[boringscreenname]

I don't post anything scandalous on facebook, and neither do any of my friends. So if any of my co-workers or bosses ran across it, all they'd find is some pretty mundane stuff. What can I say I lead a tame life.

But all of my privacy settings are very carefully tweaked and I don't add any co-workers or bosses to my friends list. I have also removed my facebook profile from Google searches and facebook searches, so if someone goes looking for me, they aren't going to find me. I had my mom and her boyfriend go searching for me through facebook and google, and they weren't able to find my profile at all. So the only way someone is going to find my profile, is by me giving them a direct link to it, or me requesting to add someone to my friends list.

[KellyHabersham]

I doubt that much of anything on my facebook profile would be an issue........unless someone had an objection to Farmville or Happy Aquarium.

[Andara Bledin]

I object to FarmVille....

^-.-^

[ottid]

Oh, I've been reading this on and off for a few hours and I can't remember what I was going to say!

Yes, I agree that anything you post on the 'net can be found, so you have to be careful. Here in NZ teachers have lost their jobs because of photos on social networking sites. Seeing as I hope to be joining their ranks next year, everything but the basics are private on FB, and that is only so people who search for me that I know, know that it is me, my name is fairly common.

On the other hand if someone really wanted to search for me, they may come across a porn actress first...

Speaking of which, I need to remove something from the Google Cache as it names me, and while I want people to be able to find the thing that they are searching, I don't want my name with it (It's my twitter, which then leads on to my blog, which may or may not have rants about teaching, which may or may not be good for future employment, it really depends on what happens during the rest of the year), so who can help?

[bean]

Sadly, the majority of my friends are made at work. I really don't have much of a life outside of work.

At one point I had a ton of coworkers on facebook, including upper management. Then I started realizing.. uh shit, friggin REGIONAL can see me bitching, since I had several store managers spread across a few stores as "friends", and regional types were their "friends", and most of my stuff was set to everyone or friends of friends.

I deleted about 2/3 of my "friends" on facebook the other day. My boss is the only management type in my list now, and only because we're actually friends.

I also set everything to "Friends only". If you're looking for me on Facebook by name, you will find me, but all you'll find is a photo and the typical "blah blah bean only shares certain things publicly blah blah" (and it's very rarely actually a photo of me anyway, it's usually something abstract or someone/thing hilariously offensive, right now it's a guy in drag with what can best be described as 56 FF balloons under his shirt with no bra). My status is typically bits and pieces of song lyrics (right now it's a quote from Megadeth - Train of Consequences) or some new photo project I've whipped up. My name isn't very common, but I leave searches open in case someone from middle/high school tries to track me down.

My boss openly admits that he's always on facebook, and if someone calls in sick, he just might drop by their profile to see if they're actively on facebook while sick. He won't call them out publicly about it, but he did tell me that stuff like that may or may not come up during raise/review time if it's frequent...

[Andara Bledin]

Hey, feel free to add me as a friend on Fb if you'd like. Just put in my handle here as one word and you'll find me.

^-.-^

[Rantsylvania 6-5000]

I have a Myspace page, but it is set to private. I don't think there's anything on there that I should worry about, but you never know what lameass excuse a manager will use to not hire, or to fire you. I also don't want crazy people to find me. However, I don't want to be judged by who my friends are, since they do some things that I don't do. But it shouldn't matter anyhow, because my off-the-clock activities are none of their damn business!

As far as I'm concerned, it's the same as stalking. It would be like a hiring manager covertly following you around town, watching where you hang out, how you are with your friends, etc. Even if they just happened to see you in public, what you do off the clock is STILL not their damn business. You're not at work, they have no say!