Does maintaining a social networking page help me gain employment 2

[asixth]

I have heard of employers who will perform searches on social networking pages to try and gain some in-sight on prospective employees.

PRO's

A well constructed and maintained social networking page gives the impression that the prospective employee has good people skills which is a very important attribute which employers look for.

CON's

Damaging or mis-leading personal information can be leaked which may make a potential employer less likely to hire the prospective employee.

QUESTION

Do employers regularly screen social networking sites before interviewing potential employees and should one be maintained with accurate personal information (name and location) to try and help gain future employment.

 

[TDAA]

Stay away from myspace, as it is too open. Linkedin is not "social" networking, it is business.

In my opinion, FB is great for personal relationships. If some of those are at work as well, then so be it. Those are your friends. I would not open my FB to any employer, or to the public. There is no reason they need to see how I interact with my friends, which is not professional, and is not intended to be.

As an example from last night: My boss does not need to know my friend found out her 13 year old son was surfing porn on the web, an had an excuse that the pictures were on the computer because they just popped up. Nor does he need to know that I told her her son needed some better sites without pop-ups . All in jest to help her deal with the situation.

Am I really worried that a "non-friend" at work might find out I have said "inappropriate" things, complained about my job, support gay rights, that I am a liberal (as if the boss didn't know that one already), that I do not feel 100% some morning because of too much wine the night before, etc.? No, but I am not going to open that up to just anyone either.

I guess the point is that if you want to let anyone see it, you have to moderate it, and yourself. I do not moderate myself, but I moderate my appearance to fit my work, and that is generally separate from social. Therefore, no access to my social side to my employer. No one at my current employer is a friend on FB yet, because I do not know them that well.

 

[rowingengineer]

Depends on the relevance, if you define this "social networking page" as facebook, then no it won't help only harm, can’t see the relevance to engineering you friends could possible generate. However if you define this "social networking page" as a group in engtips then it could help. If you were applying for a job at my company and I would give an interview because your posts (don’t mean to blow wind up you’re a$$)

Arguing with an engineer is like wrestling with a pig in mud. After a while you realize that they like it

 

[swivel63]

honesty is never detrimental to your career.

 

[HgTX]

LinkedIn is fine. I've gotten a couple of potentially useful pings from it.

Facebook...it depends on how different your work and private personas are. Me, the worst they'll find out is that I have lefty politics and a foul mouth, and they'll find that out in real life soon enough anyway. I suppose if I had a lot of friends who thought it was funny to post porn to my wall, I'd have to rethink things, but I don't.

If you party heavy on the weekends and like to brag about it on FB while still maintaining a quiet conservative image at work, then you will want to keep your FB page private. If you are a "fan" of pages that would reveal information about you that you really don't want others to know about (say, a gay rights group when you work in a very conservative homophobic environment), you'll definitely want to remove your profile from search results, since thanks to FB's new "privacy" settings those are visible to the whole world.

The new settings that let you hide specific posts from specific people are very handy. You can make a "work people" group who by default can't see what you post unless you specifically allow it.

I have a couple friends who have created dual FB pages, one for work (say, "Joseph J. Smith") and one for real ("Joe Smith"). (Some women have an advantage in this department in that they can use married & maiden names and really keep things separate.) The real page is hidden from searches and has very strict privacy settings--and no employer information, and no identifying profile photo in case someone does stumble across it. The work page is public. That way anyone searching for them will find the public page that doesn't have very much on it, and if whoever finds them is someone they want to let into their personal life, they'll connect them to the "real" page.

Don't link the two pages by friending yourself, because your unsavory friends will find your public profile, and your work buddies will find your unsavory profile. Also remember to post stuff to the public profile once in a while to keep up the illusion that that's really your profile.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376

 

[moltenmetal]

swivel63, honesty is all well and good, but honesty without tact CAN get you fired! Little different than when your wife asks if a particular outfit makes her look fat...

As the wise Lionel Hutz told Marge Simpson, there's such a thing as the truth (head nodding "yes"), and the truth (head nodding "no"). Of course there's that wonderful Indian ambiguous yes/no head wobble, which is always good!

 

[ivymike]

wow, sock puppets for work-safe info ... that's not a bad idea... but how to deal with the work people who are allowed to friend your "home" profile and then go off and friend workers who you have on your "work" profile only (thereby exposing the existence of your "home" profile to those others)?

 

[HgTX]

Yeah, the mandatory visibility of friend lists to friends of friends is one of the unpleasant aspects of the recent changes. But it's just as bad in purely social situations, where your friends might have friends you don't like (but who like you and want to contact you). If you can come up with a different name that won't raise alarm bells with FB, that helps. And not showing your face in your profile picture is pretty much a requirement to make this work. Go through *all* the account, privacy, and applications settings to find all the nooks and crannies of available protection.

Nothing is 100% secure, but the sock puppet is a good start. If you're really paranoid, you can keep an eye out for co-workers on your friends' friend lists (or pre-emptively search for them) and block them from your home profile before they get a chance to find you. (Or after, but then at least they won't find you again and they won't be entirely sure it was really you.)

I don't do any of this. But I have a friend who is accountant by day, accordion player by night, and another who is lawyer by day, human by night, and they do some or all of the above.

But the original post was also wondering if there was a plus side. Dunno, other than LinkedIn, I'm not seeing social networking as a career helper. AISC has had some seminars on social networking for work purposes, and I just don't know about that. I've had people add me as a "friend" and then proceed to spam me with whatever their cottage industry is, and it's just irritating. If you run your own business, you can make a business page on FB, but in the world of engineering I don't think that's a very efficient way to drum up business.

And having a presence on FB just to show that no, really, you *do* have social relationships, that sounds pretty desperate. Not to mention that an employer who really relies on that is an idiot. There are people who collect friends by trying to connect to everyone they come across whether they know them or not, so number of friends doesn't mean anything. And are they really going to carefully analyze your wall to see just how deep your relationships with those connections are? And if what's visible publicly is too deep, then you run the risk of looking like you have poor discretion.

I can't see starting a Facebook page just to show potential employers you're well-adjusted. But if you have one, you do need to think about what you do or don't want your present and future employers to see.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376

 

[brandoncdg]

My business got a job from becoming a friend on FB with someone I knew a long time ago, who is now an architect. He referred me to one of his college buddies who started his own firm and needed a Civil for a job. So depending on how you use FB it can work. I am all for networking any way possible. Just wasn't sure if posting on twitter actually did anything. Or if Linked In works as more than just an online resume with people you come in contact with.

If I was working for someone else I would maybe be a little more hesitant to let other people I work with see certain things. Especially if you are friends with someone higher up than your own position. Even if drinking is normal, I still feel it's a taboo to let those higher up know you drink. That seems to be a big concern with a lot of people I know.

CDG, Los Angeles Civil Engineering specializing in Hillside Grading

http://www.CivilDevelopmentGroup.com

 

[HgTX]

That's the accountant's problem. He doesn't want his beer-swilling music friends mingling with his work contacts and his conservative family.

Here's what AISC was doing:

http://www.relationshipeconomics.net/AISC.html

Looks to me like "how to spam your friends for fun and profit", but I didn't spend $97 to verify that assumption.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376

 

[TPL]

Don't do this:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...book-boss-insult-forgetting-added-friend.html

 

[jber82]

I recently used social networks to find a job. It helped me keep up with contacts that I had worked with over the years that I wouldn't have been able to contact had I not had them in my network.

I have found that they can be a valuable asset if used properly. Don't post content that would keep you from getting a job.

http://engineerhumor.tumblr.com/

 

[trainguy]

The closest I have ever gotten to social networking sites is:

eng-tips!

Facebook, Twitter, and the others just give me the creeps.

Could be due to my anti-social nature, though...

tg

 

[HgTX]

I have to say I like Facebook precisely because I'm bad at the social thing. I have a really bad track record for staying in touch with people I don't see on a regular basis, and a lifetime of regrets over that, and FB lets me interact as peripherally as I want without completely losing touch. But maybe the substitution for more substantial "real" interaction is what's creepy about it.

I wouldn't call E-T a social networking site, though, just a discussion forum. There are no networks here, and anonymity is encouraged.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376

 

[brandoncdg]

I really like this site as I can kind of gather information and ask questions. And magically people on here are knowledgeable in the topics being posted.

It would be interesting to have a subforum here for different regions for general discussions of codes and projects.

I wonder if it's useful to get people's facebook pages from here.

CDG, Los Angeles Civil Engineering specializing in Hillside Grading

http://cdg-ca.com

 

[HgTX]

Useful in a professional sense? Probably not. LinkedIn, maybe.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376

 

[brandoncdg]

I really think any form of making a real life networking connection is worth whatever it takes to get that done.

CDG, Los Angeles Civil Engineering specializing in Hillside Grading

http://cdg-ca.com

 

[HgTX]

AWS, AISC, ASQ, PCI all have Facebook pages. I'm not sure what audience they're reaching there.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376

 

[KSor]

I am not sure of the details, but I recently heard a statement from our Privacy Commissioner (I'm in Canada) that said something to the effect that an employer using information from an employees personal social networking site (Facebook in this case) for any reason is illegal. Not only that, but even looking at the information could be considered a breach of privacy laws. I'm waiting for the inevitable lawsuit coming that will test this.

 

[EngAddict]

I don't use social networking sites so I wouldn't check but at my last employment the drafting manager ran all then names when we were hiring new staff. I have talked to people who say their managers do the same. I think it may be more prevalent in the non-engineering industries perhaps?..

 

[HgTX]

KSor--I can't imagine how using information that you post in a public area is a breach of anything. On the other hand, if they somehow weasel their way into information that you don't make public, that's another story. Some city in the US recently got into trouble for demanding that job applicants supply their social networking userids & passwords.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376