Facebook Recruitment
Like a lot of things, the world of recruitment has been made all the
easier in recent years thanks to the development of the internet. Applying
for a job via email has almost completely replaced more traditional
methods in many industries, while there are also multiple jobs websites
and portals. Take a look at Reed's jobs
website or Monster.co.uk and you'll see huge directory listings and
job postings where you'll almost always find a role that's suited for
you.
It's also become apparent that once people are applying, some employers
are checking their Facebook profiles out to make judgements of their
character. It's not a great idea, as will be explained later on...
The media post frequent warnings about people listing too many details
on Facebook profiles and other social networking websites. One of the
reasons for this is that potential recruiters can sniff around a profile
to get a guise for an applicant if they leave themselves unguarded.
Students hunting for their first graduate job could especially be at
risk of this, because their lack of true experience may mean their comparison
to another candidate can come down to the wire, and a Facebook profile
might be construed as a worthy source for this judgment.
While it might intrigue you to look up and assess an applicant on Facebook
or Myspace, it's not really advisable. There's no guarantee that you'll
find the correct profile of your applicant, and any opinions that you
form are most likely to be based on assumption. A Facebook search for
'Debbie Smith' in the London Network, for instance, brought up 271 different
profiles on 16/04/08. Even if you can be more specific on your search
and the profile isn't locked - what then? You'll probably be faced with
a multitude of photos from nights out, which are often very unflattering.
People also often write things on their profile as a joke, and the content
of their publically displayed wall might be very unsavoury. The whole
thing isn't really construed to be serious or professional, so there's
no reason why you should think of it in that way.
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