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11.09
Snooping Employers – Be Aware of Your Online Profiles
By Elizabeth Lions
There is an unspoken business practice among
headhunters and corporate recruiters during this
recession — we screen our talent carefully.
Due to high unemployment and hundreds of e-mails
daily for an open position, hiring managers and
recruiters are going online to investigate
possible candidates — before the interview
process even begins.
To avoid the expense of running a standard background check or
credit check, employers will often conduct informal
background checks on each
applicant by simply running a Web search
of the candidates' names, and then removing from
the list those candidates whose social
networking profiles reveal off-color
or questionable behavior.
Snooping on FaceBook, My Space
and LinkedIn is nothing new. Employers figure
that if a person is indiscrete enough to post drug use
or other questionable activities online, they
reserve the right to discard that individual's
application from the talent pool based on
that information. It’s a shame that an old
college photo of a wild weekend can cost you the
job, but it’s true.
I have found LinkedIn to be the
most valuable tool when looking at an
applicant’s professional background. In seconds,
I can find out where a person went to school,
the last few jobs they’ve held and perhaps even
see a picture. Unlike Facebook, which feels like
a backyard BBQ chat, LinkedIn is the showboat of
the who’s who in the professional world. Many
clients have asked me to look at their LinkedIn
profile and comment on it, to ensure that it is
really what an employer would look for during a
search. Having pertinent information on LinkedIn
will give you traction in the market. It is also
common that before an employer will post an ad,
the department head will do a quick search on
LinkedIn to see if there is a viable candidate
available, without going to the trouble of
running an ad — and then having to evaluate
hundreds of responses. For the few minutes
invested, an employer can find the right
candidate and save the cost of the
posting.
Social networks can help make or break a job search.
Put your best profile forward. You never know
who is lurking.
Editor's Note: Elizabeth and
IEEE-USA are offering a free webinar,
Snooping Employers: How Employers Get Background
Information on You Prior to the Interview,
on 12 November at 2pm. If you can't make it for
the live webcast, a recorded version will be
posted shortly after the webinar's conclusion.
 Elizabeth Lions is an
author
and career coach, specializing in working with
engineers. Her book Recession Proof
Yourself! can be found at
www.elizabethlions.com
Comments may be submitted to
todaysengineer@ieee.org.
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