Social Networking: Getting Too Personal Online?
Recently, I submitted a resume for an average position with a typical company, complete with awesome eye-catching cover letter that showed off what a diverse and capable writer I am (*cough* *cough*). Normally this would be enough to land a favorable response and usually an interview would be scheduled where we meet in person and discuss the opportunity over coffee or in some cold conference room reserved for such negotiations.
I got a response. They wanted to see a few writing clips — which is totally understandable, you have to make sure your writer can form a sentence — but then they wanted links to my social networking pages, if I had any, which of course everyone does nowadays, and they’d be in contact — after reviewing them, I assume.
I felt a slightly violated, like they asked me what kind of car I drove or who my friends are, as if that would help determine my capability. Am I the only one who still believes in the separation of a person’s professional and personal life? Apparently.
With Facebook surpassing MySpace in the battle of personal webpage popularity, and Twitter transforming into a lifeline for political protest under lockdown, these pages and sites are becoming more important than ever. Social networking sites are huge, there’s no question and even the knowledge that prospective employers use them to search out applicants is nothing new. I’ve just never had someone outright ask me for it before. That got me thinking about how to balance the professional and the personal, and if such a balance can exist online.
The conclusion I came to was that it doesn’t matter. If you’re putting pictures and information out there, it’s public domain and everyone, even employers, can see it. We’ve all heard about the guy who got fired because he lied about his relative dying but got caught when he posted pics of himself at a party that same night.
Ouch. Don’t want to be that guy.
Here are some obvious and not-so-obvious things to watch out for:
Profile pics:
Fortunately, I keep the madness and debauchery to a minimum and use a generic, friendly profile pic just in case, since even if a page is set to “private” the profile pic is still visible. Photos of bikini backsides, beers swilling at parties, or the shirtless bathroom mirror shots probably aren’t giving off the best impression.
Privacy settings:
We all crave a little attention, but the smart online user will forgo this superfluous satisfaction and set their page to “private” to avoid snafus like the one mentioned above. This also helps to deter cyber-stalkers since they can’t get very much free info about your current whereabouts or friends.
Photos/videos:
You can still post those party pics, but set them to private so only friends can see them, or some sites will allow you to select who sees them and who doesn’t on a person-by-person basis. And if you’re posting pics or videos of children who aren’t yours, try to get the parent’s permission. Some parents are very avid about keeping their kids of the web.
Friends:
It’s hard to turn down requests since such a move usually translates into real world relations and makes them more difficult, but carefully consider whether you really want your boss or new co-workers as your online buddies. Remember they can possibly check up on you and verify your whereabouts if you called in sick and missed a day of work to join the Lakers parade.
Posting and comments:
You can be careful about your posts, but you can’t control what your friends are going to say in theirs. Some sites are a free for all, whatever’s posted is there and you’d have to be online 24-7 to review and censor what you want and don’t want displayed. Others will send notifications and let you review comments and picture posts before they’re displayed to the rest of your friends.
Blogs and Notes:
Crafting an amusing story about your douchey boss and how he meets a dark demise can be great reading for your friends and cathartic for a frustrated employee, but in the wrong hands, it can also lead to an HR visit or worse.
Basic Info:
Do we need to say be careful how much you put out there? Really, don’t list anything you wouldn’t want everyone and their mother seeing – address, phone number, current employer, relationship status…
Status:
This line can be seen along with your profile pic even if your page is set on private, so remember that when you want to write something with colorful language.
Like it or not, these sites can very well be the first impression a prospective employer will get of you. I don’t necessarily agree with it since I think it opens doors to possible discrimination by gender, race and other such visible characteristics, but I can see how it would be useful for legitimate screening, especially in the current economy where companies are seeing hundreds of resumes for one position. The moral of the story — be careful what you put out there, Big Brother is watching.
Image Source: teenstalktruth.com
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