Social Networking and Future Employement- Opinion Question

I would think that my education and experience would be of more importance to a prospective employer than my results from the "What Beatles song are you?" quiz or what level I've reached on Farmville.

Not everyone's profile is "private" and seen only by friends or friends of friends....I think that's the issue. People leave themselves too exposed hat way.

No, they wouldn't have special access. Set as much as you can to private & it will be less likely they'll be able to find anything.

And don't post things about you using drugs or excessive drinking, or other illegal activity!! LOL why do people post those things anyways? Sure way for SOMEONE to catch you! Once you post things on the Internet, it's there FOREVER. People can even find 8 year old copies of Web sites & re-post them! (had that done to me TWICE now)

I share on the web, what I would share with co workers at the office. I have a seperate professional and private profile and in my private profile EVERYTHING is set to Only Friends (no friends of friends) - I still watch watch I write and post.
I don't think it's a big deal, as long as you use some common sense. If you feel like sharing something that you wouldn't feel comfortable to share with total strangers, then don't put it online... that's my opinion.

There was a Dear Abbey a week or two ago about someone who was fired on the first day of their new job because HR did not like a photo the person had on their Facebook site. Perfectly legal. There was nothing wrong or vulgar with the photo but HR felt the image was not in keeping with their company image and that was the end of that. How many people spout off about religious / political opinions on their sites? Plenty do. And even having a friend from work is enough access to get you in trouble at work. Never write anything you would not want your employer, mother or priest to hear about. It will come back to bite you in ways you could never imagine in your wildest dreams.
Additional Comments:
I just found this and wanted to pass it on:
"My employer gave me a disciplinary for joining a Facebook group against them opening a store in a local town. I was invited by a friend who lives in the town to join and thought nothing of it until I was called into a meeting and told by my managers that I had a complaint from head office. My Facebook profile is set to private, but it had the details of where I worked on there. I was informed by my managers that apparently someone in head office had used the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to obtain these details from Facebook. I'm not sure how true this was, but there is no other way they could have obtained my details (my profile was set to private, I'm not friends with any managers or dodgy fake profiles).
What annoyed me the most was that the woman from head office who made the complaint was able to hide behind a veil of anonymity and they wouldn't give me her name or contact details and yet my privacy had been violated.
Mentioning no names of course, but the company I work for is a major supermarket beginning with S."

It's possible but if you are rigorous about your maintaining your privacy settings, it will help. I think on Facebook even if your information is kept private, if a friend doesn't have strong privacy settings they may be able to see some information that you shared with that person. For example, if your friend posts a photo and tags you or if their wall isn't marked private, those things might come up in a search. I am not sure about how other sites work.

If you are concerned about what may come up, you can do searches for yourself to see what you find. It would probably work best if you did it from someone else's computer so you will get a better idea of what stranger might find.

I transitioned into Social Media as a career after a layoff last year, and yes, employers are actively out there researching possible candidates because they can, and the number of opportunities to find information are increased exponentially.

Facebook is the only social network on which I feel I can be a little more free in what I say and how I approach things - still, I'm very guarded with what words I use and what I say. I almost never make comments regarding my political views and certainly never about work. My pictures are all very innocent.

Because I do a lot with LinkedIn and Twitter and tie those feeds together, I make sure to be quite careful to keep my opinions to myself regarding touchy subjects.

Even here on Mamapedia, I often don't comment or really tone down how I feel and what I want to say because I don't want the wrong impression to come across.

Employers certainly do search your online profiles to see what you're really like when you're not putting on the "show" in an interview.

Well, you can never be TRULY sure of security on the internet. There aren't any "special employer" codes so that they can see what others don't. I guess if you are worried, then don't post anything that you would be ashamed of. Or you wouldn't want your mom to see.

;

I can tell you that the first thing I do when I am about to interview someone is google their name and check FB and MySpace for a profile. I do this professionally for my job, and I do this for babysitters as well.

Professionally is a little different, legally you can't just say "This persons FB page is offensive so I won't hire then". But if you truly feel that way, you can say they aren't qualified, etc.

I purposefully don't have my full last name on FB. I have my full maiden name so old HS friends can find me. But this way if a potential employer tries to find me on FB I won't be found (as I use my married name). Not that I have anything to hide on FB, I just don't want everyone and anyone to know what is going on with my life.

Hi there. I am an HR Manager (well, temporarily SAHM due to lay off due to lack of work with company I was at... anyways...) I dealt with worker's compensation and new hires and YES social networking definitaly can be used against you. In a W/C claim I had the guy was using My Space and tho his settings were set to private his teaser page showed his a picture and "what he was doing". Between the pictures of hunting or partying we were able to use his teaser page and have his W/C claim denied. Also for new hires using drugs as an example and you are applying for a drug free employer but your pictures or the initial page has everything to do with drugs than that shows bad character on your part. Hope this helps. Good Luck

and BTW... I personally do not use social networking like facebook and myspace b/c of this.

If you have ALL of your profile settings to private for the most part they will not be able to see what information/pictures you have on that socail network. I have heard that if ANY of your friends or family do not have their settings set to private a future employer could see their photos, comments and so on that maybe have you connceted with it therefore the future employer could learn whatever from that.

I untag myself from photos & notes that I would prefer future employers not see because I am unsure of what my friend's account is set to for keeping things private. I really think the bigger issue is what family & friends have their settings at if you have ALL of your settings set to private.

Many employers do check now to see what the internet brings up so I just try to keep a clean profile online (even with settings to private) because I would hate to be passed over because of an old photo of me led them to believe something that may or may not be true