Before You Send That Resume…
Before you send that resume, you might want to take a look at your social media profiles, and the stuff you’ve put “out there,” and see what they say about you.
While I doubt the validity of requiring your Facebook login ID and password would stand up in any court, employers have ways of checking your online life without it. I have security concerns regarding a company wanting to log in as you, and there is no reason for them to want to do so. But checking out your public, online self is not out of line. There is a whole industry emerging around helping employers do a social media background check.
Employers are prohibited from applying certain factors in the hiring decision—race, religion, sex, etc—by federal anti-discrimination laws. But they are not prohibited from using your words and actions—particularly those you make public—against you. A prospective employer might find that someone who loudly proclaims that they hate working for female bosses might consider you a less-than perfect fit, especially if your boss would be a woman.
Incriminating photos, even if not posted to your profile, but in which you are tagged, might cause you to appear careless, insensitive, or otherwise unprofessional.
Scroll through THIS INFOGRAPHIC for some gotcha’s to look out for in your social media life. Go ahead and get a jump on that cleanup today so that you aren’t disappointed in your next job hunt.
