HR Folks Really Do Check Facebook
May 29, 2009 by Darlene McDaniel
Filed under Jobs
My daughter is in the midst of a job search this summer. If you have been reading my posts over the last three years, than you know that I expect her to work when she is not in school. There is no option. She had an interview this afternoon. As she and the hiring manager were discussing her skills and abilities, he asked her
about her extracurricular activities. To her amazement, he was well versed on her Facebook profile and freely shared his knowledge with her in the interview.
She was surprised, and of course my response, “why are you surprised? I have told you over and over that people, organizations, hiring managers and recruiters will check out your online profile (s). If you have an online profile on one of the social media sites, understand that organizations will find you and learn information about you that you may not necessarily want to share. For my daughter, she was not embarrassed by her profile, but she was surprised. I am glad for her experience. She has a crystal clear, tangible experience that she will never forget. She understands that her profile is visible and that somehow hiring managers, HR recruiters have access. She understands from her experience how important that she represents herself well.
My daughter was surprised, so I thought I would say it again for the record for your benefit, “HR folks really do check out your Facebook profile.” Stop living in the world of self deception. Believe it. Believe me when I say that it matters what you do, what you say and what pictures you have on your profile. Your conversation matters. Your status updates matter. In my daughter’s case, her profile is fine. Yeah! The hiring manager was not discouraged, nor did he give her bad news at this point. But he clearly wanted her to know that he took a look and he learned information about her that she had not included on her resume.
Image Credit: sxc.hu
HR folks with not a lot to do may be checking facebook and its a good rule of thumb not to post nudie or potsmoking pics but – there are privacy settings on facebook that will limit what bored, underutilized HR people may be bringing up on your facebook account. Use them.
Don’t most Facebook users configure their privacy settings? I certainly do. If Joe HR Guy checks my Facebook profile, all he’ll learn is that I have one, and who some of my friends are.
Hi MG, Thanks for stopping by bizzia Careers. I appreciate your comment, however it is not about HR folks without a lot to do or being underutilized. Organizations want as much information as they can have on any given potential employee. Organizations don’t like surprises and with the popularity of social networking and young people that like to share all of their doings with their friends and acquaintances, organizations have the opportunity to take advantage of all the information people want to share about them selves. It can make a difference in whether you get a job offer.
There may be privacy settings on Facebook and other social media platforms, but people in organizations do find out information about potential candidates and it can be a showstopper for some who have not exercised discretion on their profiles.
Please feel free to stop by bizzia Careers any time.
Thanks!
Hi Paul,
Yep you are correct. People do have their privacy settings configured and I would be lying if I told you understand all of the technical aspects of Facebook. I am trying to understand how people are able to see profiles that they are not Friends with. So stay tuned. I am exploring the how, and what is happening. I can tell you that colleges see profiles of students, hiring managers see profiles of potential candidates and that people have lost jobs because of their Facebook profile. I would love it if someone from Facebook would answer the question of how people’s profiles are vulnerable to hiring managers.
One of the things maybe the groups that people belong to. But again, I need to get more information. I will write more on this topic when I have more information to share.
Darlene