Students’ online profiles studied during job interview process

The ghost of crazy spring break past and wild Thursday nights might be coming to haunt you on your next job interview. Your online persona is now a major factor in deciding whether or not you get a job.
Online social networking is no longer limited to high school and college students. Future employers are also getting in with the social networking bandwagon.
With internships and job opportunities becoming more competitive, checking profiles helps employers narrow down the competition.
“Checking social networks is definitely a growing trend among companies, whether it’s a Fortune 500 company or a small business,” said Jennifer Cash, assistant director at the career center here at GCSU. “With the help of  (search engines) Google, Yahoo and social networks like MySpace and Facebook, background checks are just easier. The rule of thumb is: if the company has technology, the company will use it.”
However, some students feel that what they do personally outside the job shouldn’t affect their job qualifications.
“If you show up at your work, you are qualified for it, and you do what you’re supposed to, then I don’t understand how I spend my personal time should affect the decision on whether or not  I get the job,” said Bill Magallano, a senior history major. “My persona on Facebook does not testify to what kind of worker I’m going to be. I work hard. I play hard.”
Many students express themselves in social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace from pictures to a “blog” or a diary. But sometimes this freedom of expression comes at a price.
A recent article by The New York Times reported that a University of Illinois graduate applied for a job and was denied the position after the employer found pictures of the student smoking marijuana, and read his blogs that talked about shooting people and obsessive sex.  The article cited that another student, Tien Nguyen, a senior from University of California, Los Angeles, was rarely invited back for job interviews. The student “Googled” himself and traced his failure to a satirical essay he wrote entitled “Lying Your Way To The Top.”  He asked the essay to be removed and became successful with getting job interviews.
Kari Waters, a GCSU junior English major, said she understands that expressing yourself is important, but that students should be wary of what they share.
“Expressing yourself is a good thing. If you want to share what you are, what you think, and what you do with other people on a tasteful level then that’s great,” Waters said. “But telling the world that you like to smoke pot and announcing to the world about your sexual escapades? Not so much.”
There is definitely a fine line when it comes to students posting pictures and writing personal blogs on the Internet. Blogs and pictures can range from innocent enough party pictures with drinks on hand, to stupid drunken pictures, and to some vulgar and explicit displays of sex, drugs and alcohol. Some students also write topics that range from boyfriend and girlfriend or friend problems, endorsing a political agenda, to vivid details on how to use illicit drugs.
“Students need to understand that employers are in the business of hiring the best people for their company. They use the technology to see if you’re compatible with what they are looking for,” Cash said. “They just want to make sure that they are hiring the best people.”
Although this doesn’t seem to be a major concern for students that Cash advises, she still recommends that students should clean up their “digital dirt” prior to an application and interview.
“I always tell students to remember that other people want the same job they’re applying for. You want to present yourself in the best possible light,” Cash said. “We can help you with writing resumés and prepare you for an interview, but whatever is on your profile is completely up to you.”
There are some red flags that make employers wonder about the applicant’s overall judgment. These include anything from violence, explicit sexual content, drug use and alcohol abuse.
“I don’t have pictures or anything on Facebook that screams ‘I’m an idiot’,” Waters said. “People should be smart enough to know that there are fun, stupid pictures. Then there are pictures that just make you look idiotic, like smoking pot.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 3 2006. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry