Facebook.com as well as other social networking sites and search engines acoss the Internet are being utilized as background checks for potential employees, causing both current students as well as graduates to more carefully monitor their Internet postings.
Online paper trails
According to a Feb. 11 in The New York Times concerning Facebook accounts, it can be difficult to delete information you post on the Internet, especially in regards to information posted on Facebook.
A research study conducted in December 2007 by the Pew Research Center revealed that about one-third of Internet users have turned to the Web to find out something about other people.
Cynthia Kelly, of the Instructional Technology department at St. Michael’s, confirmsin a voicemail that she often receives calls from alumni who wish to deactivate their personal Web accounts on the college’s servers to prevent them from appearing on the Internet.
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An anonymous person's Facebook profile. Profiles can include as much or as little personal information as desired. |
There is reason to believe that employers are starting to use the Internet more in regards to hiring and recruitment, says Donna Atwater, a career development counselor at St. Michael’s.
“The consensus is if companies are using the Internet, we would be surprised if they admit it,” Atwater says.“I would say the Internet is public domain and anything in the public domain can affect employment.”
Facebook is one of the fastest growing social netwroking platforms with more than 65 million active users, according to Facebook.com.
Until recently, anyone on a particular network on Facebook could access anyone’s account on the same network, Atwater says. It is quite simple for alumni who work as recruiters to use their school connections to check on future employees.
However, according to Cornie Avganim, a Facebook spokesperson, the average user on Facebook can see less than 0.1 percent of other users' profiles.
“Facebook has a network structure, and only if you share network (region, school, workplace) with someone or you have become a confirmed ‘friend’ can you see their profile,” Avganim says in an e-mail. “That visibility can be restricted further by privacy settings.”
Keep it clean
Andrew DeVigal, multimedia editor for The New York Times says that when hiring, he looks for people who present themselves on the Internet as who they are in real life.
“We do not have a particular policy here at The New York Times, yet certainly if a colleague finds an interesting link…I would consider it a supplement into checking them out,” DeVigal says. “The Internet is a public domain, and users can't expect anonymity. We want to make sure we hire quality people.”
Michael Stefanowicz, a secondary education major at St. Michael's, says he understands the risks involved in having personal information online.
“I knew that I would delete my account on Facebook once I start student-teaching,” Stefanowicz says. “It is a privacy issue, and you want to keep the boundaries clean between your professional life and personal life.”
The Essex Public School District uses an Internet Web site known as SchoolSpring.com, a job search site to facilitate the recruitment process, says Lauretta Marten, executive assistant for the Essex Public Schools. Marten participates in the employment process for the school district.
“To my knowledge, we do not run an Internet check, however screening committees are set up between the local schools and the district,” Marten says.
“It used to be by word of mouth if there was a concern about hiring an employee, but I don’t see why local school officials couldn’t just look up a person’s name online to see what turns up,” she says.
Check yourself out
People need to be more cautious in their lives, and be aware of the Internet’s vast sources of information, says Lauren Remmes, ’07. Privacy control settings have helped her limit the amount of personal information made available on the Internet, she says.
“It’s hard when you have no pre-conceived notions of what employers are able to look at for yourself.As the old saying goes, forearmed is forewarned.” -Donna Atwater, career development counselor |
“With our generation, Facebook and the Internet are such a big thing,” Remmes says. “I think in the future it will be more of a problem, because we use it more.”
For generations prior to us, it wasn’t a problem because they didn’t have social networking sites like Facebook. The upward trend in posting information will probably cause problems for future generations, she says.
Atwater recommends that students Google themselves. When students know what can be found in an Internet search, they are better prepared to respond, should it be raised in an interview, she says.
“It’s hard when you have no pre-conceived notions of what employers are able to look at for yourself,” Atwater says. “As the old saying goes, forearmed is forewarned.”