Walking the Line with Social Networking Sites

The other day I was on my facebook account and as I looked down my main page, I found the most interesting and slightly disturbing “test” you could take. This made me start thinking about when people are interviewing and employers “google” the candidates name what pops up could help or hinder an interviewee’s chances.

Now I understand Facebook is private and only certain people can view your actual page, but, some of the things that people are posting on their walls or myspace (etc) are a little too much information to be putting out to the public eye. After all, if I could find it and copy and paste it into this article, how hard can it really be?

Now most of us have one of these accounts as they have become very popular for getting back in touch as well as networking both socially and professionally. What is the rule of thumb of what is too much information to put on your wall – posting etiquette? I am not an expert on this subject by any means, but in my professional opinion I stick with the rule of thumb that “if my mother saw it, would I be embarrassed?” Or even, “if I were looking for a job and my page popped up in a search engine, would this hurt my chances or give the recruiter a negative impression of me?”

After all, companies are not only looking for employees that represent them well during office hours, but also can represent the company in a public or social setting. Now don’t get me wrong, I like to go out and have fun in my spare time and post funny pictures of friends and myself on my facebook page, but there is a line. Also, facebook has the advantage that you can set your preferences to private, myspace is much more public. Facebook and MySpace are also new recruiting tools for Employers as well, as there are job tabs on each of those sites as well as the ability to create a site on behalf of the Employer to draw additional traffic and applicants to.

Case in point, here is what I found on facebook that was a little over the top and not even information I wanted to know about a friend, let alone a job candidate. The quiz was titled, “What sex position are you?” and the icon is pictured below. My friend’s result was “the butterfly.” Here are just a few examples of the recent quizzes I have stumbled upon:

I am not going to list what is and is not acceptable, as that is an individual choice, but I am just throwing it out there for thought. Especially those seeking a job, be careful what you allow to be posted on the Internet whether it be facebook or myspace or youtube, so much information is search-able by typing your name into google or any other search engine.

Have you ever “googled” yourself? My colleagues do it all the time to see what comes up under their names. This is not something I had even thought about doing before. I always use search engines when I am doing interviews or trying to help a friend with researching a company or someone they are interview with. Now I find myself “googling” my name every week to see what comes up.

A friend was recently looking for a job and she called me to go over some interview tips before she went on her first interview and it seemed like she did well. She even got a second and third interview! On her third interview, she went back in to meet with the owner of the company and he discussed the importance of his company’s reputation and how employees were walking billboards of his company (etc). He then asked her what would he find if he were to type her name into a search engine online. She said she wasn’t sure, as she had never done it herself. So he turned his computer screen around and typed her name in. There was a link to her profile at a past company and to her linked in account and also to her myspace account.

When he clicked on her name for the myspace account and pulled up her page, he was quite suprised and not very pleased with what he saw. Her status was “drunk,” and her page was full of pictures of her drinking and smoking and some of her posts were not exactly something you would want a potential or existing employer to read about you. Despite her success in interviewing until then, her very impressive resume and professional appearance in the workplace, she was not hired by this company.

She happened to call the same day I saw the “sex position” quiz on facebook and it made me think. When I write comments or post pictures, I definitely give it a second thought, just in case…I want people to know I have a blog and publish articles and am on linkedin.com, but I don’t need everyone to know when I have a cocktail or two. Just a little something we can all think about – employers and employees alike.