Proof that some employers do look at Facebook!
This story was in the IDS on February 15th:
http://www.idsnews.com/news/story.php?adid=search&id=34001
Thought this was really interesting because it was such a hot topic in class a few weeks ago. I personally don’t think it is right for employers to use this because a lot of what is on Facebook is just a joke. People could really make some bad misperceptions about people if they use Facebook as a screening technique if they do not understand what the site culture is all about. Anyway, I guess you just have to watch your back. Kind of creepy stuff.
http://www.idsnews.com/news/story.php?adid=search&id=34001
Thought this was really interesting because it was such a hot topic in class a few weeks ago. I personally don’t think it is right for employers to use this because a lot of what is on Facebook is just a joke. People could really make some bad misperceptions about people if they use Facebook as a screening technique if they do not understand what the site culture is all about. Anyway, I guess you just have to watch your back. Kind of creepy stuff.
posted by John Kluka at
8:53 PM
2 Comments:
I'm going to push you a bit on this one. So what if it's a joke? Isn't a potential employee's sense of humor or idea of what is a "joke" relevant? I think this idea of "it's just a joke" is particularly interesting in light of Ginger's observations a couple of weeks ago about how much of sexual harassment (or behavior that raises the spectre of sexual harassment liability for employers) is viewed by the perpetrators as just "kidding around."
Sometimes supposedly non-serious behavior, including the way a person chooses to present himself or herself to a large group of people (e.g., facebook), says a lot about that person. Why shouldn't that be a valid consideration by employers?
I do acknowledge that you have a very valid point professor Prenkert. My friends are always telling me how much you really can find out about a person by their facebook profile. However, I still feel that the intended use of this medium by students is to have fun with friends and reunite with old high school friends. At least originally, no one intended their facebook profile to be in the same category as their Monster.com resume.
I think that students do now need to be aware of what these profiles are being used for, like the article says. Your facebook profile is no longer the place to have a few good laughs with friends. The unbelievably high usage numbers facebook is having is attracting the attention of all kinds of people, which just so happens to include employers.
Yes, the kinds of jokes and other humor you put on facebook may tell a little about who you really are, but employers are not talented enough to decipher between a good students’ jokes and a poor students’ jokes. Because students don’t see this as a “serious site”, they should not be scrutinized for anything that they may post there.
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