FFS ...*seriously pissed off* >:-(

[Pixilated]

So I set up a Facebook account to connect up with my classmates in my current program ... aware that, if asked by a potential employer, I could point to this and say yes, here's my Facebook account. I have 'friended' most of my classmates and have also added various groups (books ... cats ... Harry Potter ... more books ... more cats ...)

So tonight I go to check on my FB account and what do I find but half a dozen cleavage shots and one shot up somebody's thigh. Taken by some of those same classmates in an outing to a local bar. None of the shots lapsed into actual porn, but this is NOT the type of thing I intended for potential employers to see.

I've deleted (or hidden, or whatever) the photos, but if this keeps up, I see I will be "unfriending" a few people in very short order.

[Tama]

I do this as well...mostly with weed obsessed and/or hateful political types. It sucks to have to police the page that way!

[Pixilated]

There is NO politics on this page for precisely that reason ... they can degenerate into something really ugly, really fast.

And it puzzles me that they think this is acceptable ... when they are just as likely as I to have potential employers scanning their FB pages. Unless they think that is far enough in the future that these pics won't be easily found anymore?

[Rapscallion]

Hmm, wouldn't the potential employer only see what you've posted rather than what your friends posted? Unless they shared them with you?

Rapscallion

[Luna Baby]

If you are tagged in a picture or post, unless you have the profile set to 'friends only' or some other setting besides public, those posts can be seen...

[Kagato]

If they appeared on your News feed, the only way they would appear on your personal wall is if you had physically been tagged by someone in them - in which case if I were you I'd be demanding that they untag 'me' immediately.

Appearing on the News Feeds does not necessarily equal appearing on your personal wall.

If you want to see how your wall will appear to a specific person, visit your personal FB page and click the gear icon, then click "view as". From that point you can type in a name (for example your boss's name) and it will show you how your wall will appear to that person - what they can see. If you can't see something while in that mode, neither will they.

That being said, I'm kind of glad that most businesses in NZ that I am aware of don't go to such lengths as checking prospective candidates facebook/twitter pages (yet...)

[Tama]

Some employers would be unhappy that you didn't remove something unsavory even if you didn't post it.

[mjr]

So tonight I go to check on my FB account and what do I find but half a dozen cleavage shots and one shot up somebody's thigh. Taken by some of those same classmates in an outing to a local bar. None of the shots lapsed into actual porn, but this is NOT the type of thing I intended for potential employers to see.

This is one of the main reasons why I do not have a FaceBook account.

I am on Google+, though, but I rarely update it.

[Pixilated]

Thanks for the clarification, everybody. I was not tagged on those photos and I'm pretty sure I have my privacy setting as 'friends only' but will double-check on that.

I thought I'd read about potential employers demanding to be 'friended' or to be actually allowed access to your social websites. That is what had me worried.

Tama: that's exactly my concern: the fact it's showing up on my wall, even though I personally had nothing to do with it.

Although personally, I don't want to see this crap anyway. It's pretty juvenile and not in my line of humour at all.

[Sapphire Silk]

Hmm, wouldn't the potential employer only see what you've posted rather than what your friends posted? Unless they shared them with you?

Rapscallion

Many employers now are asking applicants to provide their passwords to their FB accounts, so the employer can log in and see everything on the employee page.

Refusal red flags your application and consigns you to File 13.

I rarely post on FB, but I'll probably be deleting my account before too much longer. I just can't risk it as I will be looking for a new job sometime later this year.

[Pixilated]

Ah, right, that is what I remember reading about. Which means this crap could very well be visible to potential employers.

Well ... I am not friends with these people, and I need a job more than I need them on my FB page. If it continues I will start doing some 'unfriending'.

[Firecrackers Not Included]

I am an individual. An individual who has a personal life. My own, personal
life that has no room for facebook to destroy it.

[Zellie Crescent]

I would've just told them I don't have a Facebook page, that would keep their nose out of my business.

[AccountingDrone]

Probably the best bet is to simply make a burn email, get the facebook page not in your name for the real stuff, and make a sanitary facebook page with maybe one or 2 trusted friends for public consumption. Though I would have serious freaking issues passing out the password to even a sanitized page, I could see some employers trying to use the password to try and hack your personal email and other locations on the internet.

[Pixilated]

AccountingDrone: that's a thought, although I'm not sure what a "burn email" is. And the thing is, I set this up thinking it would be my job-appropriate FB page. There's no politics, no contentious issues, nothing that is likely to result in a lot of screaming, all-caps and "F" bombs everywhere. What these idiots are posting is what should be on a "real stuff" FB page, but they are not friends by any definition of the word, and I can't see setting up another FB account for their stuff.

Although it might be a good idea for the politics/religion/contentious issues, if I want to get involved in those, LOL.

I would've just told them I don't have a Facebook page, that would keep their nose out of my business.

Sometimes I can tell a bald-faced lie with a perfectly straight face but then sometimes I am the world's worst liar ... I am only missing the "Liar, liar, pants on fire!" sign in neon on my forehead.

As for simply saying they can't have access, as I believe was also suggested earlier ... to be honest, I am already likely to be handicapped in my job search because of my age. I don't want to further endanger my employability by getting snitty with a potential boss. This is not to say I don't have limits ... but I would prefer to use diversion and/or dissimulation rather than a blunt "Piss off."