Would you want your employer to see you like this?When was the last time you checked your Googled your name? When was the last time you cleaned up your Facebook page? Many people don't think about their online reputation, or give much thought to how they socialize online. But information about us is more public, and more accessible than most people thought.
Social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter have grown increasingly popular every year since their unveiling in 2004. Younger and younger students are using these sites to socialize with their friends and are posting more and more information about themselves. Many surveys show that most University students access a social networking site every day. While there are many debates surrounding these sites, one issue is of particular interest to my age bracket: employers using social networking sites to make hiring decisions.
A few years ago, attention was drawn to the recent development of employers using Facebook to scout out potential employees before deciding whether or not to give them an interview. At the time, this idea was new, and students didn't realize that their online profiles were preventing them from getting interviews despite stellar resumes and excellent marks. Beyond using Facebook as a tool for determining whether or not a candidate was worthy of being interviewed, social networking sites have also been grounds for firing or demoting employees as well.
Despite increasing awareness about the impact Internet reputation has on employment, whether or not it is ethical for employers to be using it at all is still a matter of debate.
Getting the Facts
According to a study done by Harris Interactive, 45% of employers use Facebook to learn about potential employees before hiring them. Why bother, though, with resumes and cover letters being required by every institution? Employers have come up with a few reasons why the practice is important and why it is they feel it is ethical for them to do so.
Resumes do not show character, both resumes and cover letters are carefully crafted works. As much effort goes into building a perfect resume as a final assignment. (In the case of minimum wage work, it often takes more effort to write the resume than it does to perform employment duties.) They are often carefully worded, and demonstrate highly factual data, leaving interpretation to the reader. But how a person behaves and whether or not they will work well with the team already employed is also extremely important. Facebook is a good indication of how a person acts socially.
Furthermore, people who have a bad attitude or who are negative bring down a team regardless of how much actual work they do. Many employees have been caught posting negative remarks about their boss or coworkers. Some employees were caught revealing sensitive information or corporate secrets. An employer who knows that a potential employee has a history of such infractions, they will most likely not be interested in interviewing that person, and Facebook makes finding this kind of information much easier than it was in the past.
Social networking sites can also help identify which candidates are being honest and which ones are not. While lying on a resume is never a good idea, Facebook makes it an even worse idea. With many people discussing their lives on networking sites, employers can easily see if a potential employee has either exaggerated or outright lied about their credentials.
Beyond discovering how an applicant will adjust to their duties, employers are also interested in using networking sites to expose behaviour they feel is inappropriate. 53% of rejected employees were rejected because they displayed provocative or inappropriate images or messages. 44% of employees were rejected because of either implied or explicit use of both legal and illegal substances. Information about employees is more accessible and employers are able to refuse applicants more easily based on how they acted in University as opposed to how they scored.
Unfair Screening
While employees feel that looking at Facebook and other social networking sites is essential in finding the right candidate for the job, many students felt that they were unfairly screened by this method. In one incident, a student with an exceptional resume and academic record was unable to find a job before many months before his co-op coordinator discovered the cause: his Facebook page. Since then, many have voiced an opinion against employers searching social sites for information about potential employees.
The business environment is a professional setting, so it is very common for a person to act differently in the office than they would at home. Most people do not drink or swear at the office but many people do so in the comfort of their own home. Facebook is often a reflection of how a person acts in their personal, not professional sphere, so it is unfair to judge an employee based on information learned from a Facebook page.
Furthermore, Facebook requires no verification for posted information. Since Facebook does not require any type of proof for information posted on their site, it is not always reliable. Not verifying posted data is very common among social sites, so an opinion based on a fake profile could be just as detrimental as hiring a candidate based on a fake resume. While it is possible to doctor one's online profile to look better, the question is: is it common enough for all Facebook profiles to be seen as untrustworthy?
Along similar lines, most networking sites do not require authentication for the accounts created on their sites. Anyone can create a page on Facebook. There are cats that have Facebook pages. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that an angry ex boyfriend or girfriend might create damaging Facebook or mySpace pages. Users do not have to be who they claim to be at all. I have some friends who maintain two Facebook pages, one with their real name which is dedicated to their professional life and a different one under a fake name which is dedicated to their personal life. As above, the question is still how common it is to create fake or damaging pages.
Moreover, some names are common, and have many profiles associated with them. Some names are uncommon but still have more than one profile under the same name. How can an employer be certain that the person they are looking at online is actually the person whose name is on the resume? Some people don't have online profiles, but someone else who shares their name does. Employers don't tell employees when they look at their Facebook page, so it is not even possible to tell if you have been unfairly denied an interview if your employer assumed something based on a profile that wasn't yours.
It is illegal to discriminate against potential employees, but an employer can use Facebook to research employees without telling them, so discrimination could become more prominent. Resumes are meant to give professional information only, because your age, gender or marital status don't matter. An employer who sees a young woman who just married may not want to hire her because they anticipate that she will need maternity leave. Or perhaps an employer may not want to hire a younger graduate because they perceive age to be an indicator of maturity. Either of these reasons are not reasons to deny a person a job, but Facebook enables employers to use them as such because they are not required to disclose why an applicant did not receive an interview.
Access Rights
Beyond the validity and usefulness of the information itself, is the issue of privacy and what information should be accessible to an employer. Some argue that Facebook and other social networking sites are for personal use only, and that other uses should not be permitted. If everyone had to censor their Facebook profiles, it would defeat the purpose of having a networking site. If people are creating fake personae for employers to see, it makes having a profile somewhat pointless.
From the employer's perspective, however, Facebook is public and any information posted on it is available to the public. Many networking sites have options to make some content on a profile private or viewable only to friends, so anything that is left in the open is fair to look at. Typing a potential employee's name into Google is also available to anyone with a keyboard and an Internet connection. Employers often do searches on potential employees to see what is linked to their name.
Despite many employers actively using Facebook to learn about their staff, some employers don't actually use social sites themselves, but rely on others to do it for them. In a few cases, an employee “snitched” on another employee, resulting in a layoff. Often these layoffs were for comments posted on walls or in status updates that were offensive to the company, a higher up or co-worker or was sensitive information. In this case, the employee is often viewing the private page of their peer, either because they were added as a friend or because they were looking over the person's shoulder. Should this type of behaviour be encouraged? Should an employee be found innocent of the what was accused but the employer finds other undesirable information, can they still be dismissed? There is nothing to prevent an employer from saying the reason is for improper use of Facebook, even if the real reason is different.
Furthermore, some employers may ask young employees who are in the same network as a potential employee to do a background check. There have been documented cases of a scenario where an employee agreed to perform a similar task because they were afraid of losing their own job.
How can you help yourself?
While it can be difficult to clean up your Internet reputation, there are some ways that you can clean up your online dirt. There are also some ideas that can help you preserve your privacy online and present a cleaner image to potential employers while retaining your freedom to express yourself personally.
Use your site's privacy settings
Check your social networking site for extra privacy and security settings. Set all but the most basic and public content to your private network of friends. Employers are more likely to see your public page than your private page. It is possible, however, for employers to gain access to private pages through your network of peers.
Remove old photographs and posts
If a post is older than a week or so, it is probably garbage. There is no good reason for people to be digging through wall posts from too far back. If you think you might need information in a post, save the page to your computer before removing it from the Internet. Don't store tons of photographs on your site. Remove pictures from your profile if they are older than a few months to a year.
Be extremely careful who you accept as a friend (And delete people you aren't actually friends with)
Do you actually talk to the girl who sits across the hall from you? Do you really like the guy from accounting who added you the other day but you don't really know? Would you spend time with your co-workers outside the office or invite them to your home? If the answer is no, think twice before adding them to your friends list. When you accept a friend, you are allowing them within your private sphere and giving them access to your information.
If you wouldn't normally talk to someone, don't see them often or haven't seen them in a long time, it may be time to delete them from your friends list. You never know when someone might decide to snoop your page years after you stopped being real friends.
Create a second Facebook profile
If you want your profile to look at its best for employers all the time, consider creating a profile with the sole purpose of attracting potential employers. Use your full name (so that employers won't get you confused with someone else) and showcase your skills, talents and experiences. Use your facebook page as an extended portfolio – complete with audio, video, photographs and written content. Be sure not to include details that should not be relevant in a job search such as birth date, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, or political views.
Create a second page under a pseudonym or a nickname for your personal circle. Be careful to choose a name that would not be associated with you to a potential employer. (i.e. don't choose “Bob Smith” as your nickname if “Robert Smith” is your real name.) Even though this is your personal page, it is still a good idea to follow the advice above and keep it at least somewhat clean.
The main point in this method is making your “employable” profile as accessible and obvious as possible. Using your full, correct name, having a properly identifying image and accurate information listed all contribute to your first profile being more effectively targeted. On your personal page, using a name that is not easy to find, enabling appropriate security settings and choosing your friends wisely go a long way to keeping your personal and professional online reputation separate and secure.
Delete your profile and start a fresh one
If your profile is really in desperate need of an overhaul, you may want to consider scrapping it completely and starting anew. This method ensures that you didn't miss any potentially discrediting information and that what you are presenting is the most up-to-date and accurate information about you there is. It also gives you a higher degree of control over what others can see since you are starting with nothing and building up instead of starting with a large volume of information and building down.
It is becoming increasingly common for University and College students to delete their social profiles just before they graduate in order to create new, work-friendly profiles for their transition into career life.
Google your name every few months (and before applying for a job)
Check what sites come up from searching your name and what they say about you. What kind of a person do you appear to be based on the search results? You may not be able to remove what other parties have posted about you but you can help to debunk myths about yourself by discussing them on your profile page. If someone else with the same name keeps coming up when you search your name you may want to include some text explaining which sites are about you and which ones aren't to avoid confusion employers may have.
Be careful what you post
The most common sense advice is to think about what you're posting when you are posting it. Can it be taken out of context and make you look bad? Would someone be hurt, upset or offended by something you wrote? Are all your pictures suitable for family viewing? If you wouldn't be comfortable with everyone seeing certain content, you may want to think twice before posting it. Everyone needs to let off steam when they've had a bad day, but tweeting all your friends about how you think your boss was a complete moron all day is probably not the best way to do it. A good rule of thumb is that if you wouldn't say it to a person's face, it's probably best left offline.
In Conclusion
Whether or not it is morally right for employers to look at the social profiles of applicants remains undecided. Regardless of the correctness, though, the fact remains that almost half of all employers are considering Facebook as a reliable source of information about job candidates. That means that as adults, we need to be more conscious of our online image and take care not to tarnish it. Like piracy, there are so many people doing it, that all we can do is make accommodations in our own lives to the best of our abilities.
To anyone who is currently applying for a job or who has recently received an interview, I wish you all the best. Good luck.
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