Fantastic, your Facebook account has been hacked again and your profile is raving on about tasteless bathroom activities and obscure sexual exploits. First response? An “OMG” from your boss’s sister. Awkward.
Facebook is a fantastic tool for connecting and networking of all types, so it’s hardly a surprise that an older generation of dads, bosses, aunts, and companies is growing on the Facebook scene each day. However, as the motherload of internet social life and the college kid addiction of “using laptops in lecture for a better view of the PowerPoint slides,” students often forget that socializing doesn’t stop at high school friends and college buddies.
Social Intelligence Corp. is an online provider of employment screening and monitoring services that pulls out information on job-seekers from familiar social media sites such as Facebook and Flickr. The existence of companies that extract material from your Facebook means that possible job and internship recruiters may choose to access parts of your life that you may not want them to see.
Social Intelligence answers on its website that “as per our policies and obligations under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the only information we collect on job applicants is employer defined criteria that is legally allowable in the hiring process. Examples of this include racist remarks, sexually explicit photos or videos, or illegal activity such as drug use.” You’ve heard it a million times, but a picture of you with a keg in the background doesn’t bode well with employers.
What steps have you taken to prevent unappealing messages from invading your Facebook? Many hide their wall and pictures from the public, but in this era’s social world, is it enough?
Corey Herdegen, a sophomore double major in Criminology and Criminal Justice and Art History, is scheduled to be a teaching assistant for both a criminal procedure and a human trafficking course in the spring. With extra social standards to meet for the school, Herdegen knows the importance of tact when it comes to her Facebook.
She avoids putting profanities or incriminating pictures from statuses, wall posts, or photo albums.
“I realized it’s important to set a professional view in terms of what I post on my profile,” Herdegen says. “I’m a firm believer in the right to separate work and private life.”
Yes, there are several privacy options available on Facebook, but is posting that totally awesome picture of your roommate shot-gunning a beer worth risking your future? It may very well be right now, but in a few months it’s likely you’ll have a reason to regret it. It’s a dangerous idea to advertise promiscuity and vulgarity on the internet. Regardless of your intended sarcasm, it could come back to bite into your career plans.