Emily Crighton
Editor-in-Chief
We’ve all used Google or social media platforms to look someone up we want to know more about, but is it okay for an employer to do so before making a hiring decision?
In honor of National Cyber Security Awareness month and also in honor of creeping ever closer to being a college graduate in search of a job, I’ve begun to look at social media in a different light.
While the ethics are sometimes put into question, there is nothing out there preventing employers from doing internet research on job applicants.
It’s become common practice to take a look at someone’s online presence before offering them a job.
To many, it feels like an invasion of privacy, and in some ways I do not disagree.
For example, we cannot control who shares our name.
When you google me the first result to pop up is an IMDb profile for a woman who starred in “Pinup Dolls on Ice” among other things.
Ugh, thanks for that, other Emily Crighton.
How do I work around that? I honestly don’t know the answer.
My stance has been to make sure the content out there that is actually me makes it abundantly clear who I am, and who I am not.
In the realm of social media, however, we are more or less in control of how much information we allow to be public.
Because of this, I find it hard to be upset about employers looking at my public profile.
My Twitter and Instagram are private and almost everything on my Facebook is set to friends only.
It’s not that I have anything to hide (the majority of my posts are pictures of my dog), but rather that I do not believe that the general public needs to know how cute I think my dog is or when I leave town.
While the public oversharing of personal information is a big red flag, being invisible online can have its downfalls as well.
In fields such a mine in particular, having an online presence is a must.
We have to use media every single day, what does it mean if there’s no indication we ever have?
That we have no experience? That we don’t keep up with trends in technology? Possibly.
I tend to tailor the content I choose to share to the image I want employers (or whoever might be looking me up) to perceive.
Heck, when I turned in an application for a rescue dog I made twice as many photos of me with my family dog public on my Facebook page.
Some may argue that doing this comes with the price of being less authentic. I disagree.
I never share anything that is not true, I simply choose to highlight things about myself that I think an employer is looking for.
It’s no different than what we do when we turn in a resume or go on a first date. We want to look good.
I encourage everyone to google themselves and check privacy settings from time to time.
Being aware of what’s out there can help keep you safe and keep you hireable as well.
