BRIDGE Blog

A popular employment issue over the past few years has been the use of social networking sites by employers for information on prospective and current employees.  Millions of people worldwide have joined sites such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Friendster.  The focus of these sites is to build online communities of people who share similar interests.  The sites allow users to create pages where you can display photos and share information about yourself with friends and the public at large.  While these sites may have originally appeared to have been tailored to teens and tweens, their usage has become widespread.  A recent survey revealed that 65% of business professionals are utilizing personal and professional social networking sites.  Not unexpectedly, employers have become more aware of such sites and it is easy for them to find information job seekers may have preferred to keep private. 

A 2007 survey by Careerbuilder indicated that 22 percent of hiring managers said they use social networking sites to research candidates prior to making a hiring decision.  This is twice the number that the same survey found in 2006.  34% of these hiring managers reported that they found content that caused them to dismiss a candidate from consideration.  Employers have also fired employees for information found on social networking sites.  For example, one person in Boston divulged on Facebook that his workday consisted of “screwing around on IM” and “talking to my friends and getting paid for it.”  After being confronted by the CEO about these entries, the person was fired.  Examples like this highlight the need for job seekers to consider the content they post on these “social” sites in the context of their professional, as well as private lives. 

Multiple articles on this subject have focused on the legality of using social networking sites as background checks of current employees or job applicants.  Before I begin discussing this subject, please note that this is not intended to be legal advice.  The common claims and questions have involved discrimination and invasion of privacy.  As one author put it “like it or not, as a general proposition employers are free to make . . . hiring and termination decisions, even based on false information, as long as in doing so they do not violate some specific law.”  At the moment no law prohibits employers from searching social networking sites on the Internet to conduct their own background checks of current employees or job applicants.  An employer can then terminate an employee or refuse to hire an applicant based on information found on the Internet so long as the information learned from the Internet is not used in a discriminatory manner or is otherwise prohibited by law.  An example of discrimination in this case would be if an employer only checks for damaging information on applicants or employees based on race or gender.  A claim of invasion of privacy is unlikely to succeed as this claim requires a “reasonable expectation of privacy.”  This is especially true if the site is readily accessible to the public.  However, there is a potential argument that using social networking sites to conduct background checks violate state statutory law.  For example, California and New York have statutes that prohibit employers from interfering with employees’ off duty private lives. 

It has been difficult to find any example of a successful claim against an employer for the unlawful use of social networking sites.  At least one expert believes that lawsuits over internet snooping are only a matter of time.  However this is merely speculation.  There is only one true way to prevent your social networking sites from negatively impacting your career: be careful about its content.  You should assume that future employers will read everything you post. 

On the other hand, using your sites affirmatively can give employers a positive view of you.  In the same Careerbuilder survey mentioned above, 24% of hiring managers indicated that they favored some job seekers over others because of their social networking profiles.  These job seekers included/illustrated attractive information about themselves in their profiles such as great communication skills, wide range of interests, good fit for employer’s culture, professional image, and creative ideas.  There are other ways of preventing negative attention from employers based upon information on social networking sites such as changing your privacy settings on sites such as Facebook so that only certain people can view your profile.  Periodically checking your friends or acquaintances’ sites for contents concerning you can also help to make sure you don’t get any unpleasant surprises during the hiring process or during your employment.  Finally, Google yourself!  Use a search engine such as Google to see what information people can find out about you on the internet and make sure that what you find is appropriate.  Look at what you’re putting out to the world about yourself with a critical eye if you don’t like what you’ve found be proactive and change it – don’t let your social networking persona negatively effect your real life career.   

Surprise, surprise. Giving away food, drinks, and a mini-laptop was incentive enough to bring over 100 people out to our Young IT Professionals Happy Hour on April 16^th.  We were pleased to see how many people stayed to socialize long after we did the drawing for the laptop and the McFadden’s gift certificates.  The opportunity to meet other young people in the IT industry was clearly as strong a pull as the invitation of free food and drinks.  

One of the main goals of our Happy Hour was to address part of the RI Tech Community (recent graduates and new members of the workforce) that rarely get out to networking events.  Networking events can be intimidating, especially for young professionals.  With that in mind, we were particularly thrilled to see all the new faces: a few people who are regulars at ProvGeeks and TechCollective events all mentioned how refreshing it was to come to an event where they hardly knew anyone. I kept walking up to groups of people and asking how they’d heard about the event. One of the most common ways was through RINexus, which is clearly a site that the RI IT community admires and follows.

Regardless of where our attendees heard about the event, it was great to see that the turnout included a variety of companies and professionals all getting together to enjoy Happy Hour (or three hours) with us.  We were pleased to meet so many great new people at the event and we engaged in some really wonderful conversations throughout the evening.  We also had a chance to catch up with some young IT professionals we had successfully placed in companies throughout Rhode Island, along with people we have known for the past few years who were nice enough to come out and support our efforts.  The laidback atmosphere at McFadden’s seemed to be a great space for mingling and we noticed there were many people who didn’t know each other and had a chance to make connections.   

Thank you to everyone who participated in our online survey and congratulations to our winners of the night Barsha, Aura, and Chris!  We are looking forward to sharing our survey results with you very soon!

 Overall, our happy hour proved there is an audience for these types of events.  We’d like to help build the community and provide younger IT professionals with networking opportunities. People kept asking if we were going to have another event. The reality is that holding regular events like our Happy Hour is unsustainable – we can’t give away a laptop every month, but everyone had a great time and we are looking forward to hosting more events in the future to get IT professionals together.  Thank you to everyone for making our event a success and keep an eye out for our next events!  Until then, don’t be shy – drop us an email and let us know what you think. 

The internet is full of examples of interviews gone bad.  Many of these examples are humorous, from candidates challenging interviewers to arm wrestling, to mid-interview phone calls to therapists  you don’t have to search long to find examples of really poor decision making during interviews.  A personal favorite of mine is that of a candidate who came to an interview with a moped and proceeded to leave it in the reception area.  He didn’t want it to get stolen, and said he would require indoor parking for the moped if he were hired.  He wasn’t. 

While most of these examples seem far-fetched, any recruiter can give you similar examples (let’s just say that it’s not a good idea to bring a pet to an interview unless it is a service animal).

The importance of a successful interview has seldom been greater as our economy is undoubtedly in desperate times.  Simply put, you can’t waste the opportunities you’re given. Whether there is a science to good interviewing is debatable.  The so-called “experts” on the subject have led at least one interviewee in my experience to disaster even when the person followed instructions to “alleged” perfection.  This particular example came about as a candidate answered some of the most common interview questions (particularly “What are your biggest weaknesses?”), with pre-planned answers according to how a popular book on the subject informed interviewees to do so.  To make matters worse, this candidate had already interviewed successfully with the employer more than once.  Both the candidate’s technical skills and “soft” skills passed the test.  In the end, one “X” from Human Resources was all that it took to derail his successful interview train.  The cause … they didn’t like the way the candidate answered the most commonly asked questions. 

Although all employers are different in what they are looking for, there are a few “universal truths” to help you put together a successful interview.  The first of which occurs before the interview begins.  Research the employer and  - if possible -  try to learn the credentials (at least the name!) of the person that you will be interviewing with.  I have found that the impact of doing this successfully has been tremendous.  For example, one recent interviewee discussed an article that the interviewer had written to assist in the answering of a question.  Major bonus points.  More important, though, is learning about what the employer is looking to accomplish with a particular project, software, etc…  Establishing an understanding of what they are looking to accomplish, and then stating specifically how you can help them attain their goals is paramount to success.  Preparing to do so before the interview has clear benefits. 

Keeping a positive attitude and personality throughout an interview is also an important factor.  This should go without saying, but far too often candidates have been nixed for not being a “personality fit.”  As a hiring manager once told me, “you can teach someone technical skills, but you can’t teach personality.”  Some actions that can immediately raise red flags are speaking negatively about past or current employers, or prematurely discussing the issue of compensation.  The desired personality certainly does not have to be that of the life of the party.  Rather, the characteristics necessary are those of someone who will be able to get along well with most people while displaying some form of enjoyment for performing one’s job.  Seems simple right?  Of course that is greatly simplified, but it is surprisingly accurate.  And please, please do not speak over the person interviewing you!             

Finally, practice interviewing as much as possible.  If at all possible, practice with a friend or family member.  This will increase your comfort level, and will help ensure that you answer questions clearly and directly.  An interviewer, much like the rest of us, is not a mind reader.  He or she will not know what you are capable of unless you tell them.  It is always unfortunate to hear from a hiring manager that “I feel that he has good skills, he just could not get across the knowledge in his answers.”  Practicing interviews will assist in preparing you to get all of the points across that best illustrate your skills.  While practice may not necessarily make you perfect, it will optimize your chances of impressing the interviewer.        

There are multiple other interview tips to help you make the best of your opportunities.  Much like how the internet offers you access to humorous interview horror stories, there are also helpful websites to help prevent a disastrous performance.  Below are a few of our favorite links …

http://jobsearch.about.com/cs/interviews/a/aceinterview.htm

http://www.job-interview.net/interview.htm

http://www.jobopenings.net/interview_tips.htm#TIPS