Myspace profile? It could cost you your next job

Welshy said:
As long as you're not actually like a complete nob jockey on Facebook/Myspace, what have you got to hide? oooo there are pictures of you getting smashed, so what? doesn't it show you have a healthy social life and aren't a bedroom hermit?
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Fair point. I'd expect 75% of the 20-30yr old age group go out and get drunk from time to time. It's pretty normal.
 
Ulfhedjinn said:
This thread enouraged me to finally close the MySpace account I don't use, and to set my Facebook to more secure privacy settings (had it all open and free for all :eek:!)
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your problem is linking to your facebook from your myspace, too! :p
 
Hen_Dawg said:
They can if you are in a network, e.g. biggest FB network in the world is 'London', a couple of million people can see your profile if you join that one
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People need to learn to set their privacy options. If you search for me you can see my name and my profile picture, but that's it.

Only problem is as I have a unique name if you Google for me the only links go to my Xbox websites, which might show me as immature perhaps?
 
Surfer said:
uhmm so their private/social life should be up for judgement on whether they are good at the job?

Doesnt have anything to do with it surely...lol
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We do tests and a couple of interviews and where possibly have them in for a day to see if they like it and if they're switched on enough to determine if they're good enough.

We've had problems with people drinking far too much and turning up hungover/falling asleep at their desks before and we'd rather like to avoid that situation again ;)

We've found things on myspace accounts related to sexual preferences etc that made female members of the team say it made them uncomfortable and also references to previous interviews were they've said they wouldn't work for that (this one was applying for an apprentice post where the wage was dictated by the scheme) which made us think, well if he signed up to a program where the wage was X why is he complaining when he was offered X wage. Made us think that they have little attention to detail or commitment.

On the plus side we just hired someone who had a perfectly normal profile, the odd stupid photo etc but there was no reference to running over cars, getting wrecked every night etc like in some of them we read.
 
ive set up my facebook and mysapace so that only my friends can view my profile

any future employees can try search for me
wont get any info except maybe my profile picture
 
I don't post much on facebook and myspace, so they wouldn't get much on me from that, bar basic info that I'd probably be telling them anyway. But if they searched for forum posts made by me, they might find quite a bit. I hope they do that to be honest. Sure, some of the stuff I post is personal stuff that won't reflect particularly well on me, but hopefully they'd also find posts that show how much I know about the job in question.
 
Interesting stuff. Not enough to make me go through all the photos I have been tagged in on facebook and delete all the ones were I look like I shouldn't be employed :p
Maybe they'll just show I enjoy my life ;)

As to myspace, I haven't really touched it since I made it.
 
No big suprise. I actually do this myself. Not for getting the dirt on potential employee's, but for getting the dirt on potental housemates.

Whenever I speak to someone about a room in a shared house, as soon as I get their email I look to see if they're on myspace.

It's saved me from living with some right wierdos :D
 
chimponarope said:
We've found things on myspace accounts related to sexual preferences etc that made female members of the team say it made them uncomfortable
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ehh?!!:eek:

I have no problem with companies using whatever test (psychometric, psychological profiling etc) they like during the interview or trial period for the employee.

Its when they investigate the private aspect of someone's life and judge them on that. What someone does outwith work should have nothing to do with them.

In saying that, all this myspace/facebook rubbish isnt really private stuff its publically viewable.


re: my comment about the blondes and blue-eyed folk

thick end of the wedge :D One minute we're saying "you must have a pleasant manner when answering the phone" the next "you must be X size, have X looks, you must behave at all times (including time at home) adhering to the company creed and code. Any employees not deemed to be acting in accordance with aforementioned code will be sacked immediately. So e.g. if you work for BA as an air stewardess and you fly Virgin on a holiday you get sacked for "sleeping with enemy" so to speak :D Basically anything you do has to be company approved. Do you ask your boss " hey is it ok if i go out on the lash tonight boss?"

Basically i'm against any company/work intervention crossover into private life...
 
You know I never even thought to try it. I just googled for 2 people I am interviewing next week, just using their name and location. One of them came up as the first result on google.
 
It's actually something I'm quite careful of, not so much the personal details available but what I say about things. I work in the gaming industry and as such I may talk about games or gaming on my site, but I won't give opinions on it. If I were to post saying for instance that I thought Call of Duty 4 was the most awful game ever released, and we were doing a promotion for it, I would possibly end up in trouble at work. There have been cases fairly recently of people being fired on the spot for gross misconduct after saying bad things about the fields their company works in, not even the company itself, just the field, on their personal blog.

It's not awful by the way, awesome game, I'm just using it as an example. :)
 
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