Author Topic: Facebook through an Employer's eyes?  (Read 16320 times)

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Cherie B. Tay

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Facebook through an Employer's eyes?
« on: Dec 16, 2008, 11:02 pm »
Just wondering what people think of facebook helping/hindering employment.

Everyone has facebook nowadays.

Would a workshop be good just to check people's profiles/privacy settings?

Some stuff might seem just fine to the person, but not to someone viewing it. Thoughts?


KMC

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Re: Facebook through an Employer's eyes?
« Reply #1 on: Dec 16, 2008, 11:31 pm »
I actually thought this would be a great idea for a themed chat one night - and I think it's been mentioned before, too.

Certainly a great discussion to be had!
Get action. Do things; be sane; don’t fritter away your time; create, act, take a place wherever you are and be somebody; get action. -T. Roosevelt

Amie

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Re: Facebook through an Employer's eyes?
« Reply #2 on: Dec 17, 2008, 12:10 am »
Great topic. As the leading social network, I think this would be a wonderful workshop/chat session. I'd be there with bells on.

-A
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MatthewShiner

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Re: Facebook through an Employer's eyes?
« Reply #3 on: Dec 17, 2008, 12:17 am »
As someone who hires, I would never search someone out on facebook, unless for some reason it was listed on their resume.  (I actually had a resume once with a facebook page listed as their web page - in which case I went and looked - I was not impressed.)

Just remember, as a business owner of your own self and business, you should understand that all online presence could work for you and work against you.

Now, on the flip side, I use facebook a lot to keep in touch with a lot of SMs and actors - I do a lot of "work" via facebook - oddly enough.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Anything posted here as in my own personal opinion, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of my employer - whomever they be at a given moment in time.

Amie

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Re: Facebook through an Employer's eyes?
« Reply #4 on: Dec 17, 2008, 12:25 am »
As someone who hires, I would never search someone out on facebook, unless for some reason it was listed on their resume.  (I actually had a resume once with a facebook page listed as their web page - in which case I went and looked - I was not impressed.)

Just remember, as a business owner of your own self and business, you should understand that all online presence could work for you and work against you.

Now, on the flip side, I use facebook a lot to keep in touch with a lot of SMs and actors - I do a lot of "work" via facebook - oddly enough.

Employers couldn't see my profile anyway, due to privacy settings: not that I have anything I am ashamed of.  I think it's important for both self expression, with the responsibility to remember it is also extremely public. (Again, could work for or against). I agree with that.

On the plus side: a lot of work can be done through the site (because, well...it's a network.  And a popular one at that).
~ Amie ~

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PSMKay

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Re: Facebook through an Employer's eyes?
« Reply #5 on: Dec 17, 2008, 12:41 am »
I can definitely say that I use both Facebook and Myspace in my day job as a leasing agent to check up on apartment applicants.  So even if it doesn't affect your job it may affect your life.

sarahbear42

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Re: Facebook through an Employer's eyes?
« Reply #6 on: Dec 17, 2008, 08:30 am »
I think it's a great idea. I try to keep my Facebook/Myspace/Twitter all appropriate and tame, but I have some friends with absolutely ridiculous things... you'd think by now people would know that you shouldn't have a beer in hand in your profile picture...

MarcieA

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Re: Facebook through an Employer's eyes?
« Reply #7 on: Dec 17, 2008, 11:35 am »
Is there an SMNetwork group on FB? We should create one if not!
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Michael

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Re: Facebook through an Employer's eyes?
« Reply #8 on: Dec 17, 2008, 12:36 pm »
Is there an SMNetwork group on FB? We should create one if not!

There is.

Amie

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Re: Facebook through an Employer's eyes?
« Reply #9 on: Dec 18, 2008, 02:39 am »
Though I agree with the posters who caution how explicit info on the internet can be used in more than one way, Facebook is, above all, a social networking site. Using Facebook to measure the potentiality of an employee is like using a strainer to measure a cup of water.

True.

However, it does inform a bit of how someone is socially and a lot of what we do as stage managers is pretty social, isn't it?
Also, take for instance, someone has inappropriate pictures (and by inappropriate, let's say it's a photo album of one too many drinking binges and partying)...if this person is hired for a company, this person therefore becomes part of the company's representation.  How does that reflect on the company?  It's just a minor consideration, you know?  Just to be cautious, is all. 

I'm not saying it's right to judge that way, but it certainly can work that way....
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Re: Facebook through an Employer's eyes?
« Reply #10 on: Dec 18, 2008, 09:19 am »
Look, as someone who hires, it is impossible to get a full picture of anyone from just an interview and talking to to their references.  It's one of the reasons if I know someone on someone's resume who I know who they don't list as a reference, I will contact them and try to get a more information about the person.  This is why I do a web search on a person and their shows to get a sense of "what they are not telling me".

It's amazing how much information you can get on a person by a web search, usually by e-mail address.  I think I would learn a lot about the person via facebook that would help me pick a stage manager.  Look, the general skill set used to stage manage a trained monkey could do.  What we do isn't that hard, really.  But, what makes the difference from just an ordinary stage manager and an excellent stage manager, one I hire over and over again, is their personality, their humanity, their sense of humor.  Things that are usually very hard to read on paper.  One of the main reasons I like face to face interviews is I get a sense of what that person is, rather then just what they are presenting to me.  If I can't stand to spend one hour with you in a room together, I am not going to be able to spend 10 hours together in a room. 

So, I strongly disagree that a social networking site would be a poor use to measure the potentiality of an employee; it would be foolish is to be the only source of reference, but it would help complete the picture of who that person it, what circles they travel in, and get a sense of who that person is.  Now, with facebook, unless we are already friends, I am not going to get too much information from them, but for example, I did found that A. Baj (just using her as an example) and I have one friend in common, who I would contact about a reference, I was also able to get a picture of (what I assume is) her, I was also able to get her full name, and thus did a full web search, getting all her contact information - from a piece of paperwork for a show SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH THE SHOW - all of this based just on her e-mail address typed into facebook which lead to a google search.  Now, I didn't find anything that was incriminating. 

I am sure someone doing a search for me on line can find a lot of stuff about stage management, but would also find my other interests (the fact I am gay, the fact I have two min-pins, the fact, for a time I was very vocal about father's right and divorce, I was very into musicals, and that I shared a lot about some health concerns about my past).  The net is very public thing, and things don't go away here.

And the facebook security is good for a casual user to block, but if someone wanted to get the dirt on you, being a friend of a friend, can lead to pictures being passed down the line.



All well stated...and I'm a little creeped out... ;)

I agree with all of the above.
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KMC

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Re: Facebook through an Employer's eyes?
« Reply #11 on: Dec 18, 2008, 10:00 am »
I think we could have an excellent debate on the usefulness Facebook as a recruiting or hiring tool.  Matthew and Sarah both make some good points.  Personally I think if it's on the web it's fair game and I lean towards Matthew's stance.

Publishing something on the web is basically like publishing something in the NY Times (speaking in terms of expecting privacy; content and merit, well.. yeah).  Once you publish something online you're putting it out there for everyone to see.  Regardless of how strict the privacy settings appear the fact remains that it's there and people can (and believe me, will) see it. 

Agree or disagree with the practice, many employers will do it.  Best be prudent and prepare for it.
Get action. Do things; be sane; don’t fritter away your time; create, act, take a place wherever you are and be somebody; get action. -T. Roosevelt

sarahbear42

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Re: Facebook through an Employer's eyes?
« Reply #12 on: Dec 18, 2008, 10:47 am »
Something else to consider: Just because you get smart and make things private now doesn't mean the information isn't still cached out there somewhere. I'm not sure if it works for things like Facebook and MySpace and such, but you can find a whole lot of stuff on the Wayback Machine http://www.archive.org/index.php that isn't actually "online" anymore.

This is one of the reasons that I'm glad I got married straight out of college... I changed my name just in time to not have any professional references that would know me by my maiden name, so any idiocy I perpetrated in high school would take some serious digging to find.

Trevor7

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Re: Facebook through an Employer's eyes?
« Reply #13 on: Dec 18, 2008, 01:26 pm »
All I have to say about hiring based on profile pictures on facebook is an old quote that holds true "don't judge a book by its cover".  Personal life and professional life have nothing to do with each other.  Now if you hire someone and they allow there personal life to affect their professional life that is different, but you can't assume just because someone has a profile picture of them drinking that they are a raging alcoholic that will drink at work.  My theory is that if they don't hire you based on a profile picture (that shows your personality) then you probably would not have gotten along with this employer in the first place.

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Re: Facebook through an Employer's eyes?
« Reply #14 on: Dec 18, 2008, 03:39 pm »
This is on the same line as knowing what the internet knows about you. At my college we found a website that seems to magically collect information from all sorts of sources. It doesn't get everyone, but a lot of people have found profiles about themselves that was compiled from a variety of websites which included pictures, addresses, phone numbers, and other unpleasant information that they didn't know was online. It is really creepy actually.

www.peekyou.com

Thus far I've been lucky. None of my info has found its way to this site and I credit that to my need for as much privacy as can be found online. A lot of my friends haven't been so lucky.

As for social networks as a method of choosing employees I have mixed feelings. I believe that what you do anytime represents who you are and you have to accept that, but I also believe that pictures and select words cannot truly give an accurate picture of a complete personality. I know many of my profile pictures, although not inappropriate in any way, would not make sense to anyone but my closest friends. I would have for an employer to not hire me because they didn't understand an inside joke.
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