Your Facebook Profile as a Litmus Test
For some reason, it seems that recently I have been hearing a lot about people worrying about potential employers investigating them using their social network presence. For many people, this is a cause for worry or concern, as they don’t want hiring managers rejecting them because they don’t like the personal information that they have posted on a social networking site, particularly a Facebook or MySpace page.
A recent Ars Technica article cites a study that found 22% of potential employers were researching candidates on social networking sites. The article discusses the specific example of a potential employer judging a candidate based on finding pictures of them enjoying a Friday night. From the article:
A company might not be interested in hiring an alcoholic, but what about a candidate whose MySpace contains photos of a Friday night party? One manager might conclude such a person has a good group of friends with which they relax and blow off steam at an appropriate time, while another might arbitrarily decide that the candidate in question drinks “too much” in their own personal opinion.
This is a great example of what I like to call Inverse Selection. If an employer determines that they do not want to hire me because I posted photos of myself enjoying some beers with friends on my last trip to Boston, then they have saved us both a lot of time by passing over my resume. If an employer has a problem with my political views, social activities, or dating habits, there is very likely to be a significant problem in that potential working relationship anyway. Basically, I don’t want to work for a jerk who will judge me for posting too many Ron Paul videos on Facebook.
To me, my Facebook profile is a great litmus test to determine whether the hiring manager is a narrow-minded jackass.
tech | current events | rants
