Asking about your Facebook profile is a big no no
A resounding NO echoed through our Facebook page when we asked you our question of the week yesterday; “Have you ever been asked about your Facebook profile in an interview?”
Not only had you not been asked about your profile, but it appears to have become a bit of a taboo topic. In fact, here is how some of you felt if you were to be asked about your information on Facebook:
Achi: No never, here it's something "forbidden".
Oana: No, I haven't. I think I would consider it a lack of professionalism from the company's side. Facebook is more personal than professional, even if a is a social network, and asking about this is like mixing the personal life with work.
Bryce: No, Facebook is none of their business. If they asked, I would be insulted. Since it's a personal site for friends and family. Though, LinkedIn would be fine…
Perhaps a little surprising since just a few years ago it felt like Facebook was a hotbed for recruiting. But maybe we, in recruiting circles, have started to better understand and define what counts as “personal” vs. “professional” in our online communities. Even more so maybe we’ve taken our own advice not to believe everything we see on the internet. And it will be interesting to continue to track how our social interactions continue to be redefined as we live privately on such a public platform.
4 Comments
JaAG said:
Forbidden? Really? I think some people are just kidding themselves. If you put the info out there, savvy hiring managers will see it.
Bryce said:
JaAG, people's houses are "out there". Is it alright for employers to sit out side people's homes and watch them to gather information? What about stalking them in their personal life? Gathering or asking for personal information online is the same as offline. Not that it really matters since most people are totally different personally then they are professionally so gathering personal information doesn't always lead to finding out what kind of employee someone would be. Everyone puts on a mask of professionalism in the workplace, no one is perfect. Though, we try so hard to be.
Harry Falkenmire said:
This is a pretty hot topic of debate internet wide thanks to social. One half (myself included) believing transparency is king and you should have "one identity", the other half (most in my demographic) believing that its "unfair" if pictures of you being stupid with your friends on Facebook prevent you from prevailing in professional situations.
Regardless of which camp you root for, it's definitely in your best interests to ensure anything "personal" is on lockdown in terms of social network privacy settings. As someone else stated, employers will have no qualms judging you based on whatever information they can find, be it facebook.com/420emily or gayandlesbianemily.blogspot.com
brent said:
Well facebook now a days is a very good source of information., but i think it should not consider for asking about the applicant it could be a fake info there in Facebook.