Facebook as a "Resume" to hire an employee « Videomaker Community Forums

lomaymi
Member

Hello Videomaker Community

This is not exactly video related (that why I post it in Open Forum), but I would like to hear what you think about this.

I recently wrote an article for my blog, "Facebook Resume; Hiring someone for a Job" and I was wondering if you think to be unethical to use Facebook as a "Resume" to hire an employee?. I personally believe that business should consider this because they should hire the best people that can make their business grow (Facebook will sure give a lot of information about a person). I wrote about things that should be consider when evaluating the person Facebook profile, such as the pictures. What do you all think?

The meaning of a movie are the characters, the life of the movie is the music, but the magic is in the editing.
Luis O. Maymí
Follow me on Twitter @lomaymi

Posted 11 months ago #
birdcat
Moderator

I am not a lawyer nor do I play one on TV.

That said, I don't know if there would be a liability if you look at their personal stuff (I know HR told me I was not allowed to ask personal questions on interviews - specifically "What do you do for fun?" any more).

What you can do (I believe) is compare any technical (including video) claims and job histories between what they send you, FaceBook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc... to ensure consistency - serious differences can signal a problem.

Bruce Paul
7Squared Productions
http://www.7squared.com

Posted 11 months ago #
composite1
Moderator

However,

Many employers are looking at FB and using prospective employees pages to see what's what. If you have anything that could be considered, inflammatory material, rants or otherwise stuff a prospective employer might find questionable, they will use it against you. Best thing to do is keep your deepest feelings to yourself and don't put them online unless you can accept when someone throws it back in your face.

As for it being potentially unethical? Possibly, but we live in a 'run-tell-it' day and age full of snitches and blabbermouths. Anything you say or do can and will be used against you on the web if someone can find a way to upload it. Stick to Linkedin and other professional sites for posting your resume'.

H.Wolfgang Porter, Composite Media Producer
Dreaded Enterprises Unlimited, Inc.
http://www.dreadedenterprises.com

Posted 11 months ago #
Don
Member

A not-so-tech savvy friend asked me "What is Facebook?" This was the best I could come up with:

"take 300 narcissists, 580 businesses, 10,000 advertisers, a few phishing scam artists, who all pretend to be your friend, and pretend to like you, all hoping to get something for nothing from you... then add your relatives and ex's who want to keep tabs on you.... plus all your real friends are already there, now give them all a place where they can spam you with multimedia text messages 24/7... THAT is Facebook my friend.

Now since you want somebody, anybody, preferably EVERYBODY to buy your photo services, ....GET OUT THERE AND MAKE SOME PHONEY FRIENDS AND PRETEND TO LIKE THEM!!!!! "

Now would you really want your job prospects to depend on what a person reads about you there?

Just sayin'. Hope that helps.

Posted 10 months ago #
grinner
Member

I see nothing unethical about it. I do think if a person seeking a job should try harder though. I can tell you if I requested a resume but got a facebook link instead I'd just delete the email.

http://grinnerhester.com

Posted 10 months ago #
Don
Member

You are right there Grinner, but the ethical part comes into play when an employer Demands or Sneaks into your profile and snoops before, during or after the hiring process. Yes it is somewhat public, but leaving your car or house door unlocked may make it easy for someone to enter, but that doesn't give them the right. Demanding to search your home and your mail and email as a prerequisite to hiring or maintaining employment is also wrong. So the whole ethics part fall under the "If your boss is your friend and you WANT to invite him/her in that is free choice, but if not then what right do they have to demand access or sneak in through the back door?"

Remember you cannot control everything other people post, and you often wind up with people or posts you're networking with that you'd never actually hang out with, if you're looking for business....

Posted 10 months ago #
Don
Member

forgot to mention...

you can have both a facebook account and a Linkedin account. Just keep the Linkedin account very professional and you could use that instead of facebook for people you want to make a good impression with.

;0)

Posted 10 months ago #
grinner
Member

oooohhh. that.

Nothing unethical about that at all, man. It's why people create facebook pages, twitter pages, youtube sites, ect.... to be seen. If they have something to hide, they should probably hide it.

Look at my website. My life is an open book. Could I then get fussy when someone lookes in and sees something they don't like?

That's kind of silly.

Check it, dig it, or don't click it. If nothing else, my web presences are a weeding process for folks I don't wanna deal with. Nobody puts their life out there without knowing their will be (or hoping there will be) viewers. Quite optomistically, wanted people aintt updating statuses in real time.

;)

Posted 10 months ago #