Your online activity may be costing you a job.

Flyonthewall

My worry is not that they will find my Facebook profile, it's that they can't find it and, worse still, they could find someone elses and think it's me.

Got nothing to hide on Facebook, I just don't want everyone to be able to know everything about me...

Thing is, especially for my age and the fact I do use computers a lot, it must seem really odd to employers that they can't find my Facebook profile. There are other people with my name on Facebook and from a quick search I've found nothing really bad they're still not something I'd want employers to mistake as my profile.

I know one company looked me up as they told me they couldn't find me. Not sure what they expected me to say to that. I knew I had everything on my profile set to friends only, don't think I knew at that time that it wouldn't show up in search results. Although they could have searched using my email address and found me, I'm sure lol (will add, I have a new email now so they can't do that anymore).

I didn't get the job, but it could have been one of a few reasons - whole situation was weird.

They did find out one of my usernames (it's nothing bad) as I had web work/images online under that name (was for a web job) so perhaps they searched into that further. I know there's nothing bad under that, least not that I've done. For all I know they may have found one little thing they didn't like for some silly reason.

How many times have you gone to join a site and been told your username is unavailable? It's not like, even with really unusual usernames, you can guarantee that everything under a username is from that one person. So going by usernames/screen names is no better than looking up profiles.

cherryblossomzel

gettingready wrote: »

MY FB has nothing to do with what my work is and should not be snooped on. If someone does not understand my basic right to having a private life - I would not work for them/with them.

This is a very naive point of view. Just because you feel the world should be this way, doesn't mean it is. Employers check facebook (and other online activity), deal with it. I agree with your basic right to have a private life, but it is your responsibility to keep it that way. If you make FB etc public, then you're allowing people to look. This is why I make my FB as private as is possible and try to limit my online presence as much as I can.

Besides, as someone else said, your out-of-work activities can impact your job. If you go out drinking every night then you might well be too hungover to do your job properly, and if you posted stuff about a previous employer then they would be remiss not to be concerned about your professionalism.

mattcanary

Flyonthewall wrote: »

My worry is not that they will find my Facebook profile, it's that they can't find it and, worse still, they could find someone elses and think it's me.

Got nothing to hide on Facebook, I just don't want everyone to be able to know everything about me...

Thing is, especially for my age and the fact I do use computers a lot, it must seem really odd to employers that they can't find my Facebook profile. There are other people with my name on Facebook and from a quick search I've found nothing really bad they're still not something I'd want employers to mistake as my profile.

I know one company looked me up as they told me they couldn't find me. Not sure what they expected me to say to that. I knew I had everything on my profile set to friends only, don't think I knew at that time that it wouldn't show up in search results. Although they could have searched using my email address and found me, I'm sure lol (will add, I have a new email now so they can't do that anymore).

I didn't get the job, but it could have been one of a few reasons - whole situation was weird.

They did find out one of my usernames (it's nothing bad) as I had web work/images online under that name (was for a web job) so perhaps they searched into that further. I know there's nothing bad under that, least not that I've done. For all I know they may have found one little thing they didn't like for some silly reason.

How many times have you gone to join a site and been told your username is unavailable? It's not like, even with really unusual usernames, you can guarantee that everything under a username is from that one person. So going by usernames/screen names is no better than looking up profiles.

If you have a fairly common name, it would not be that surprising if they cannot locate you.

I hardly think they will spend more than a few minutes trying to locate you.

These examples in all likelihood, relate to people with fairly unusual names.

mattcanary

Yes, but you can only search by someone's name, not their user name?

If you apply for a job, how can the recruiter be expected to know you personally?

paulineb_2

AP007 wrote: »

No but if they thought the area was a rough place like a coucil estate with a bad reputation the employer may just dismiss your CV.

I live in one of the worst areas in my home town. It never stopped me getting employment.

ColinFishwick

My daughter hasn't even started her job yet, starts on Monday and her new employer has found her FB profile so she tells me.

Flyonthewall

mattcanary wrote: »

If you have a fairly common name, it would not be that surprising if they cannot locate you.

I hardly think they will spend more than a few minutes trying to locate you.

These examples in all likelihood, relate to people with fairly unusual names.

It's not really common. There's a few people with my name, but not loads.

Prothet_of_Doom

I imagine looking at google street view at the state of someone's house might alter your view of them too?

I currently have a linked in profile only, and am about 2 months from the end of a 12 month contract. It might get renewed, but I'd rather move on, so in a month I'll be actively looking, but I know I need to be careful about any posts on linked in I make. I wanted to post an open message to my contacts like "Looking for a role doing xyz from June 10th" but I know my current hiring manager will read it....so I'm going to have to identify those connections which might be able to help and send them private messages.

Flyonthewall

mattcanary wrote: »

Yes, but you can only search by someone's name, not their user name?

If you apply for a job, how can the recruiter be expected to know you personally?

Yeah, but if they do find you by name and you've posted a link or something on Facebook to something which is under your username or they have an email and search that and it brings up things under your username then they'd be able to search by username too.

TonyMMM

Checking ALL on-line activity is a very standard part of recruitment checks and has been for quite a few years now.

I have seen numerous examples of people who were not called for interviews because of something seen on-line (usually on FB)..... the candidate who had posted to all his mates about how he was going to stroll into a great job using made up qualifications, and how he was going to "wing it" in the interview (because they never check) was one I remember well !

And don't believe that setting FB to private stops someone who really wants to know about you - I worked with an HR consultant who openly boasted about how he got access to "private" FB accounts (and his remarkably easy method did work in about 95% of cases, and still does).

Just always remember that anything you post on-line is never private and can never be deleted.