The Internet is a resume
I have friends who work in executive recruiting, so I hear the inside stories of HR hell — how often laws and policies regarding "don't ask, don't tell" situations are circumvented through informal phone calls and non-work e-mail addresses, and so on. And since American business has moved away from an environment of rewarding employee skills and loyalty and toward a system of advancement through job-hopping, I know human resource professionals are just trying to cope with the changing times.
So I wonder why anyone is surprised by this Information Week story about employers using Google, MySpace, and other Internet tools and off-hours sites to check up on potential and current employees. With the amount of personal information people publish on-line through social networking sites or blogs, it is easy for an employer to use informal discrimination. No need to go to the expense of having someone pee in a cup if their blog has a link to NORML, right? Of if you think that heavy metal music is the tool of Satan, then you can easily exclude an otherwise well-groomed candidate once you see their pentagram-laden MySpace page. Let's not even discuss what happens to the applicant who runs a personals ad.
I'm more interested in the long view. While those of us over forty are in the significant minority as regards personal publishing in the on-line space, it is ubiquitous in the middle-class twenty-something set. As they age, will we have an entire generation kept out of executive positions based on their digital trail? Or will America be forced to adapt and accept lifestyle choices and identities previously kept behind closed doors?
Update: Alesh provided this link to an article about wiping your digital fingerprints off the web.
9 Comments:
One reason I like to remain anonymous.
And it is a good one.
Well, of course I have some exerpience with this. And while I intend to walk into any future job interviews and open with a hearty "I HAVE A FUCKING BLOG," I actually don't think it's a huge problem. I don't think CURRENT employees will really have their online activities monitored (my boss knows about my blog, and she seldom if ever glances at it), so the issue is when you're applying for a job. Lifehacker just did a thing on cleaning up your digital indiscretions, and had I wanted to, I could have temporarily taken down the MPAC-related posts off CM before applying for work there. I'm glad I didn't.
Interestingly, one of the things you CAN't go back and edit later is comments posted on blogs. To this day, a comment (e-mail, actually) submitted to suck.com in 1999 figures prominently in my google. No big deal there; just interesting.
oops... here's the link for the second link...
Actually, Alesh, acccording to my informants, there are more companies monitoring current employees than you might think. Generally it's only done once they've already decided they want to get rid of you, but still...
This is one of the reasons I don't give out my employer's name (though it isn't hard to figure out). If I don't provide an easy link between me and them, it's harder for them to complain.
Alesh: get the hell off your computer and get to your desk. You're late.
-- Your Boss Who Doesn't Glance at CM or Any Other Blogs
I recently "cleaned up" my MySpace and Facebook as best I could. I'm going to follow the aforementioned link to cleaning up indiscretions, however. This is very unsettling and intrusive. I feel kind of violated. Eek.
On the one hand: This gives whole new meaning to thinking twice before airing out your dirty laundry, which those of us from the Jurassic period of the computer age always understood as having consequences. I mean, kiss all you want, but don't tell. The power of personal publishing is so seductive, however: just imagine, you're a teenager, have a recently discovered magnanimous and as yet to be humbled rebellious ego, and a place to say whatever you want without your parents meddling about and a 'safe space' in which to develop your own 'fan club.' Seductive indeed. And I believe the right to be able to make a fool of yourself when you're young is still the important thing to uphold, no matter what the format.
On the other hand: While employers are right in seeking the best possible candidate, it seems like there's something a little too 'Stepford employee' about this -- trying to find someone to fit a certain mold when the most intelligent and creative people in the world are the ones who break molds. It's also the pot calling the kettle black, as the candidate could google his boss to find his or her dark side.
Who knows, that same medical student who got drunk and put a lampshade on his head at a frat party when he was an undergrad, could very well be the same medical researcher to find a cure for some disease years later.
And the truth is, just because that employer doesn't find any sketchy or embarrasing information about a prospective candidate, doesn't mean that candidate isn't an irresponsible fool. Seems to me like they'd save a lot of time not googling.
And besides, the whole thing can be circumvented by using pseudonyms!
I tend to take the opposite tack... I blog under my own name, and say only things that I'll own later. I'd like to have control over what Google says about me, after all, and it's really caused me to re-evaluate the kinds of stuff I say- do I really need to say that nasty thing about that client? If I have stuff I want to say in an online context that I don't want to be widely read, that's what LiveJournal is for.
Besides, if someone Googles me and finds my blogs where I'm open about who I am, they'll generally stop looking for other things. Distraction. ;)
Post a Comment
<< Home