Saturday 27 March 2010

Is this Fair?

Should employers Google you?  An article in The Guardian asks this question today.  If you are on Facebook, or blog then there is information on you out there that can be accessed readily.  If you are applying for a job (very relevant for me right now) is it fair for the interviewers to search for you on the web?

At the recent training I had from 3D Coaching this was discussed and we were told to think about the contents of our blogs.  We were also told that there is a priest out there who won't get a job because of his blog (and I noticed that one of the blogs I followed suddenly disappeared) - and one person then spent a free afternoon researching how to remove their Facebook entries entirely (they found a way that appeared to do it - I think they suspended it).

So is this fair?  The Guardian article suggests that there is no difference between this and saying things in the pub - except in the latter case there is no evidence!  Is this perhaps why some people blog pseudonymously?  Although I do wonder how possible it is to be anonymous.  In my case I think it is difficult to espouse openness if you are hiding.

During the training we were also told that we should be our real ourselves - if they see the real us and don't want that then that is a good thing to discover.  But if you are in desperate need of a job (luckily not my situation) then that ideal can perhaps be compromised.

2 comments:

  1. Mmm.. I just went to an interview where it was said my blog counted against me... but there again if they dislike my blog will they not dislike me??? I do feel I censor my blog sufficiently to make it generally acceptable, partly because my kids may well read it and there is a limit to what I want to expose to them about myself and life in general.

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  2. Found this post today:
    http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/28/reputation-is-dead-its-time-to-overlook-our-indiscretions/

    Looks like things might be OK in a few years time!

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