Your online activity may be costing you a job.

melysion

cherryblossomzel wrote: »

This. Lots of lamenting about the way things SHOULD be. In a perfect world, no-one would come into your home and steal your stuff either. However, burglaries do happen and for that reason most people lock their doors. Same thing with FB, employers WILL look and if you don't want them to see stuff, then either don't post it, or use the privacy settings properly.

Apologies. Double post

melysion

cherryblossomzel wrote: »

This. Lots of lamenting about the way things SHOULD be. In a perfect world, no-one would come into your home and steal your stuff either. However, burglaries do happen and for that reason most people lock their doors. Same thing with FB, employers WILL look and if you don't want them to see stuff, then either don't post it, or use the privacy settings properly.

Indeed. Which is why, disappointingly for the likes of silentkiller, people would gleam virtually nothing from my public facebook profile. I make it a rule never to add current work colleagues too. And I've switched off public searching - my facebook profile wont pop up on a google search.

Its a shame that one has to think like that. But if some think they have the right to poke their nose into other peoples private affairs without permission, you have to protect yourself.

Tiglath

I just Facebook searched two candidates we interviewed today. Wide open profiles (nothing controversial) but one had a link to an article saying how your Facebook profile can get you the sack.

I don't use my real name on Facebook, I can't be mistaken for someone else because of the name I chose, and the only things you can see if you stumble onto it are a few innocuous page likes.

melysion

I wonder if some employers discriminate against candidates that set their profiles to private.

cherryblossomzel

melysion wrote: »

I wonder if some employers discriminate against candidates that set their profiles to private.

I guess it's possible. I personally have my FB set to the most private possible, but I do have a linkedin account, so they can find me on there. If a relatively low-key internet presence loses me the job, then so be it.

robatwork

melysion wrote: »

I wonder if some employers discriminate against candidates that set their profiles to private.

Just the opposite - shows they know at least something about internet security.

Flyonthewall

melysion wrote: »

I wonder if some employers discriminate against candidates that set their profiles to private.

robatwork wrote: »

Just the opposite - shows they know at least something about internet security.

Not all employers will think that way. How many of them have Facebook and don't realise they can be set to private? How many will know enough about IT to know it can be set to private (if they don't have Facebook themselves)?

Just because you know about Internet security doesn't mean they do and if you're going for a job, especially where IT is involved, that could certainly go against you.

mattcanary

melysion wrote: »

I wonder if some employers discriminate against candidates that set their profiles to private.

Clearly, I'm not typical of all Money Saving Expert posters, but:


If I was a recruiter and saw someone had used privacy settings I would definitely wonder if they were trying to hide something.....

J_i_m

mattcanary wrote: »

Clearly, I'm not typical of all Money Saving Expert posters, but:


If I was a recruiter and saw someone had used privacy settings I would definitely wonder if they were trying to hide something.....

That may be a natural assumption, but it also shows the general tendency people have to assume things, jump to conclusions and second guess to the extent that harmless things are turned into big issues.

I've worked in the care industry, for the NHS, and although it may not be policy, the team I belonged to dicussed online social networking and came to the concenus that we should all use the maximum security/privacy settings on any internet profile we happend to have.

This wasn't in order to cover up behaviour or procetct us from scams etc, but simply because of the vulnerable nature of the people we nursed. For example, at the very least if you had one of your patients as a Facebook friend then professional boundaries have been breached. So it's to protect both sides..

Not only would staff with fully open profiles (and with patients as friends etc) risk having a safeguarding action raised against them due to the vulnerable nature of their patient, but they'd also be providing that patient a window into their private life and the possible means for actual physical invasion of privacy. And if for example you nurse people on section 37/41 of the mental health act, then you probably don't need to do that

So, there could be many reasons why anyone would ultilise the privacy and security settings on there online presence, (their employer may have even told them to).

So I do think it's a bit harsh to automatically presume that people are trying to cover up dodgy behaviour if they've made their online profile harder to view.

getmore4less

mattcanary wrote: »

Clearly, I'm not typical of all Money Saving Expert posters, but:


If I was a recruiter and saw someone had used privacy settings I would definitely wonder if they were trying to hide something.....

I guess some people are quite sheepish about their internet presence and try to be careful giving to much away to avoid being identified.