Your online activity may be costing you a job.

keyser666

mattcanary wrote: »

Networking, by its very definition, is about being nosy (at least, to a degree)

As said there are two approachs to networking, one is the LION and Never IDK method as I mentioned and the other is to network with colleagues and recruiters, I am of the latter persuasion.

Some people do not take to the cold call networking approach, some people use LinkedIn as a way to keep lines of comms open for things like references, prospective roles at the same company or another a connection has moved to and also reccomendations intheir current and previous roles.

I dont mind adding recruiters but I dont want to take a look at someones profile under my own guise when I do not know how they will take it when they get notified pre an interview, therefore I dont bother and at least I havent forsaken a role because the interviewer thought it creepy or nosey.

RuthnJasper

DCFC79 wrote: »

The latest video is of a guy claiming to have found a quickest way to work by following an ambulance and the guy in the video ha snow lost his job all because he uploaded it, it just beggars belief why people would do that.

Yes; I rank this alongside people who claim disability allowance, pleading inability to walk properly or being housebound, and then post up photos from their ski-ing holiday on FB...

silentkiller

I facebook all my potential candidates (and if I don't see them in the top 5 or so, I move on) because as someone above as said, if someone is always drinking and out partying, they will probably either be too tired or too hungover to work, if they turn up at all.

On top of that, if one of my colleagues had facebooked her candidates when she employed then she would have known the girl she was hiring was a drug dealer (and we are talking cocaine, mdma etc not just a bit of weed). Without the research we were not asking some of the right questions (which we added on later to all interviews). Guess what? She was an awful employee and I was told (by her) months later that she and another colleague had done cocaine in the work toilets, during work time.

I get your private life is just that, however I completely condone people using facebook to research.

The only thing that could probably be perceived as negative on my facebook is my strong beliefs in animal rights and if that costs me a job, that's fine with me because I'm not one of these terrorist type activists who smash people up, but I believe strongly in it.

However, that said, I did make one mistake once with FB and a candidate where I found someone who lived in the same area, with the same name as my candidate. This girl was shown to be smoking a large spliff in one of her pictures. Now this photo was quite old (2 or so years) so I thought let's bring her in and see how she does (since the drug dealer employee, we do ask if applicants have ever used illegal drugs, so I was interested to see if she lied also). Turned out to be a completely different girl.

Flyonthewall

silentkiller wrote: »

However, that said, I did make one mistake once with FB and a candidate where I found someone who lived in the same area, with the same name as my candidate. This girl was shown to be smoking a large spliff in one of her pictures. Now this photo was quite old (2 or so years) so I thought let's bring her in and see how she does (since the drug dealer employee, we do ask if applicants have ever used illegal drugs, so I was interested to see if she lied also). Turned out to be a completely different girl.

I guess it was lucky that it was an old photo the other girl had, otherwise I'm guessing she wouldn't have had a chance.

Makes you wonder how many employers make such mistakes and don't ever get to find out and how carefully some of them look.

I mean there are some places in the UK that are also in America, for example. So you could even mistake someone with a person who doesn't even live in this country if you're not careful.

Also what about people who tag others in a photo of themselves so the other person sees it? It could be a photo of someone else doing something bad but with them tagged as though it's them in the photo.

It's far too easy to mistake someone for someone else when looking on Facebook.

silentkiller

No I completely agree.

Her qualifications were fairly good anyway so using Facebook to vet candidates should be a tool to give an idea, not to discredit completely.

On another note, we managed to use Facebook to have someone fired who was not doing their job properly.

Now using Facebook to fire someone is a tricky subject because you have to be able to view the profile without using a fake one, hacking etc so basically the profile has to be viewable to a complete outsider.

He had put on his status something like "Don't work for (Company Name) it's F****** !!!!" and was always talking about the drugs he was doing etc.

For me, I won't post anything on facebook I don't want my mother to see, and that would include anything to do with any drugs (not that I do any but if I did), how much I hate my job (save that stuff for your diary!!) etc.

I also know a woman who was fired by her boss because she called in sick, went to a concert and posted pictures on her social media of the concert. It was in the news but I'm struggling to find it because I can't remember the exact details.

melysion

silentkiller wrote: »

However, that said, I did make one mistake once with FB and a candidate where I found someone who lived in the same area, with the same name as my candidate. This girl was shown to be smoking a large spliff in one of her pictures. Now this photo was quite old (2 or so years) so I thought let's bring her in and see how she does (since the drug dealer employee, we do ask if applicants have ever used illegal drugs, so I was interested to see if she lied also). Turned out to be a completely different girl.

And this, in a nutshell, is why its 100% wrong for an employer to look up candidates on facebook. You simply don't know whether you have the right person. Theres numerous people with my name on facebook - I have looked.

No employer could see what I have on my facebook page, as I have it on private. The only thing they would gleem would be I am fond of the Hobbit films. They wouldn't even get to see what I look like. lol

silentkiller

melysion wrote: »

And this, in a nutshell, is why its 100% wrong for an employer to look up candidates on facebook. You simply don't know whether you have the right person. Theres numerous people with my name on facebook - I have looked.

No employer could see what I have on my facebook page, as I have it on private. The only thing they would gleem would be I am fond of the Hobbit films. They wouldn't even get to see what I look like. lol

As I said, it can be used as a tool to aid but not necessarily to discount the person completely.

Now I use it after I've offered them interviews and then I keep things in mind that I may have seen on their page.

melysion

It shouldn't be used at all. Its none of your business what a employee does in their leisure time/private life

silentkiller

I disagree.

melysion

silentkiller wrote: »

I disagree.

Clearly, as you like poking around other peoples facebook pages. Good luck finding any juicy details from mine though.

Would you like me to poke around your private life, as my potential employer?

Whats good for one and all that ...