With rapidly growing social media use throughout society these days many employers are finding it a useful employment tool. Some companies are even going online to check out future employees Facebook pages or even in some cases asking for passwords. Would you be ok with this? I know my answer would be no.
Facebook is where we go to catch up with friends and display what we have been up to, whether that is through pictures or status updates. Considering this, it is obviously safe to say that all of the pages out there are not cleaned up and certainly not up to employer’s standards. This is why I think it is important to keep our social media pages clean. Some may say it is our right to display whatever we like on them, and while that is true, would you want your future boss looking at your wild, drunken, friday night? Employers are going to creep whether we like it or not, social media is growing rapidly and companies have seen it as a new tool to investigate the people they hire.
It is our responsibility to keep our pages the way we want to be foreseen. I think a lot of times people forget, and see Facebook as a place to ‘hangout’ with their friends. This is just not true anymore today. Employers are looking, creeping, and sometimes even hacking! There is certainly not much we can do bout this, which is why it’s so important to keep our pages clean. Change the privacy settings on your pages. Monitor the comments and posts left on your page, don’t be afraid to delete if you feel they cross a line. Keep track of all the photo’s you are tagged in, make sure the photo’s you personally upload cast you in a positive light. If you do like to go out on the weekends and have a good time, simply leave your camera at home. Just like the saying goes, “think before you speak”, “think before you post”. I think everyone can keep a clean Facebook they wouldn’t be ashamed for employers to see with out losing themselves in the process.
I am the first to say I would not be comfortable with employers looking through my social media, but there is not much I can do to change this. This is why it is so important to keep track of your social media pages and keep them clean. Employers are going to look whether we like it or not. Our social media pages should be a reflection of the people we are, not the mistakes we have made.
