Facebook & Your Job Applications
You may think it is harmless, but could that photo of yourself with your tongue in a friend’s ear that you put on ‘Facebook’ actually lose you a job? You may be surprised to know that many computer savvy employers now make it a practice of ‘Googling’ job applicants. Comments and photos of you that were funny for your friends on a social networking site such as ‘Facebook’ and ‘MySpace’ may be seen in an entirely different way by a prospective employer.
If a prospective employer searches for your name in an internet search engine, will he or she find anything destructive to your chances of employment? An employer who finds comments about using drugs socially on the weekend on such a website will likely decide to reject the application, even before an interview.
Sometimes employers will have a tough time deciding between two interviewed applicants and will search on the Internet for more information on the top 2 applicants. Imagine getting through the whole job application process, including the interview, only to lose the job because of a comment on ‘MySpace’ or ‘Facebook’ about getting drunk. Unfortunately, in the real world of competitive job applications, this actually does happen.
The difficulty with the internet is that it makes information readily available to anyone. This means that prospective employers have as much access to your public profiles on social networking websites as you do for your friends. If you give the prospective employer a bad impression, you may just lose your chances of getting that ideal job. Anything put on the internet is no longer private, so be careful.
Just as job applicants are encouraged to review a company’s website before applying for the position, so that you can see what the company’s public image is, employers are being encouraged by HR gurus to check out a potential applicant’s public image. The idea is that employees will be similar in the place of employment to what the employees do at home. If you show you have no ethical concerns with downloading pirate DVDs on your Facebook page, the employer may think you are also going to be unethical about stealing stationery from the workplace, or spending time playing computer games instead of working.
If you are currently applying for jobs, and have social networking pages already, you may wish to review what is on your website pages. The following is a list of basic suggestions to ensure your ‘Facebook’ or ‘MySpace’ page does not destroy your chances of scoring a job.
• Just like your resume, cover letter, and job application form, your social networking pages should present you in a positive light. Nothing that suggests lewdness, stealing, drugs, or even excessive drinking is going to give your prospective employer a good impression.
• Arguments with ex-lovers or friends can also be destructive to a job applicant’s chances, especially if whinging about the person has become public on the internet. Employers are looking for people with excellent communication skills, who will work to resolve problems, rather than employees who will whinge about other people.
• You should delete any photos that show you in a compromising position. Remember that while it may look hilarious to you to have that photo of you sucking on a bottle, a prospective employer is going to see it in an entirely different perspective.
• Delete any comments that do not show you in a positive way, or reflect on your moral standards in what prospective employers could see as a negative attribute.
If you are serious about your job applications, it may be worthwhile deleting some sections of a current Facebook profile. You do not want your prospective employer looking at how drunk you were on the weekend. It really does not give the employer the impression you want to make. Ensure your ‘public’ image matches what a prospective employer will want to see.
