Dishing out the dirt

MySpace & Facebook have made it easy for us to post whatever we feel (photos, interests, etc.), & we think we've got made it made as far as privacy goes, right? When it comes to prospective employers looking for folks who are a perfect fit for their companies, however, that just isn't the case at all. Nowadays, they're getting bolder & wiser about their future candidates & what better way to find out more about them than by going Google on you.

Just the other day, I was reading an article in the Reader's Digest where it stated, "More and more companies - 61 percent, says the Ponemon Institute, a privacy research organization - are running online background checks on prospective hires. And 43 percent of those potential bosses nixed candidates based on what they found out about them." Here's the thing: when it comes down to hiring someone for a job, employers know that this is a rather risky business & has always been so. And they don't like being hit with surprises either: they'll look at what people post & think to themselves, "Hey, will that new dude in advertising make clients turn away the very instant he talks about how often he's on Playstation?" or "Is that new salesperson who we just saw on those Facebook/MySpace pics going to be the right candidate for our job? I mean, look at her just drinking away..."

Well, we have a tendency to think our profiles on MySpace or Facebook are heavily guarded, as if it were our very own personal diary which only a select bunch can read. How wrong. Either of those two sites are open to the public, especially to bosses hoping to fill open positions in this department or that. Some folks, when it comes to getting their priorities right (as well as their interests), just don't get it. In that same RD article, a dude by the name of Brad Karsh, president of JobBound (an online employment company), found a young man who he thought would be the right guy for the job. But before he even considered making an offer, he decided to check out his candidate's Facebook page & what did he find? "The job seeker had listed his No. 1 interest as 'smoking blunts with the homies.'" I mean, how mature does that kind of interest sound to an employer? It sure wasn't mature to Karsh & not only that, it was also bad judgment on the candidate's part as well.

But just when we think young adults & college students are shooting themselves in the foot because of their racy/inappropriate stuff on MySpace/Facebook, their parents are no better. Case in point: "One candidate for a position selling software was a shoo-in for the $100,000-a-year job. Until the employer took a peek at his MySpace page and saw this: '40 years old and like 'em younger!'" Could he have been talking about women? Wine? Cigars? It's hard to tell but his boss interpreted the situation quite differently than the candidate did; needless to say, he didn't get the job.

True, we're not perfect; we all make mistakes. But when it comes to posting pictures, what could be considered harmless comments online...that's not just a mistake; it's out & out bad judgment. And that's one thing companies cannot stand for. If the boss has issues over what you might have said online (verbally or no), there comes the distinct possibility that he won't hire you.

What a lot of folks fall for as far as Net myths go is that (as I stated earlier), it's heavily guarded stuff which only certain individuals can check out. But this is simply not the case: they just don't realize that first impressions are more often than not last impressions. "I'm a good person, I'm smart, knowledgeable in my field..." Yet companies aren't exactly eager to give their prospective hires that much leeway when it comes to securing a job & what better way to determine if you're good to go for that sales position than by Googling your name, browsing Facebook/MySpace, among other things.

Young or old, we've put our lives on display for the whole world to see whether it's on Facebook or MySpace & feel that we've done a great job in doing so. But when it comes to how we present ourselves in a business environment, have we done a great job in wooing our employers-to-be by posting crazy/out-of-line pics or any other offensive material which our boss has no patience for? Certainly not. If we want to seal the deal for that new sales position, one of the best things we could do is take down anything which may be deemed as "wrong" or "uncool" from the employers' standpoint/perspective (pics, comments, etc.).

We think we've got it made as far as privacy online is concerned, but for who knows how many prospective bosses out there, they've got new tricks up their sleeve nowadays. And one way they can see if you pass their litmus test is when they go Googling around. The worst mistake we could make is to leave those things which are better left unsaid online for them to read.

Oh yes, pics included.