Do you really know what happens after you click “post” on your Facebook wall? It floats around cyberspace forever. Every random thought or interesting fact we post about our lives sits in the realm of Facebook world. There it lies to be ingested, prodded and dissected by whoever is enabled to look at it. Privacy is taken more lightly than ever before.
SLCC Communication major Chelsea Ericksen exclaims, “I Googled my name the other day and found a post I had made five years ago come up that was used as a comment on another friend’s page. I haven’t even had a MySpace account since high school.”
The Internet seems to holds more personal information than we can keep grasp of.
With the social network age in full swing, Twitter and Facebook have become useful sources to find personal information about prospective employees for employers. Robert Jeffs, current Utah State Bar President used Facebook to narrow down potential receptionists for his law practice.
“A resume is not an accurate view of who [that] person is. They show what they believe I want them to tell me,” Jeffs said on how he narrowed it down from 85 to 6 people.
Facebook has settings for people to show only certain information. Not all people set those privacy settings, and that is where the cyber network can be either a neutral asset to you, or a detrimental one.
“Not only could I put a face to the resume, but see insight into that person’s life. For instance, I am looking for a long-term employee and I ran across a few that made comments about not being able to wait to get out of Utah,” Jeffs said.
Jeffs also said that Facebook gave him a good indication of the lives the prospective employees led. Jeffs works at a family law firm in Provo, Utah and wants to hire a person with a strong work ethic.
“I was able to see if that person had somewhat of a drug or alcohol personal life from comments other people made on their wall,” he said.
Though this is a partially biased statement, there is valid truth to the remark. Professional businesses want a professional. If vulgar or inappropriate information is floating around and kept in open conversation, it can be harmful to you when looking for a job.