I am a combination of fascinated and outraged by this concept.
Last week in the NYTimes Sunday Business section there was an article about about a start-up company that will do social media background checks on potential candidates for companies. They can find stuff dating back 5 years. Remember that nasty comment you made on facebook to one of your friends; remember the picture you posted showing you with the six pack; boom–not hired due to poor judgement.
Now I suppose we have to consider the age of the candidates: those in their mid-20′s would have still been in college–should they have known better?; is their college behavior indicative of who they will become and how well they’ll perform their job? If we had looked 5 years back at Anthony Weiner, would he ever have been elected? (or married for that matter)
There is something deeply disturbing about this for me. What bothers me is that we assume a mask of privacy even when we’re on-line by putting up some walls and not making everything available to everyone. Does a post in bad taste mean that it will derail someone’s career? Does everyone have to be perfect? What is acceptable enough to be hired and what is not?
I’m pretty “clean” online (maybe because I’m a boring parent…); my teenage daughter is not–neither are any of her friends. The thought of a company doing a background check on things I thought were private is not where I think our job market should be going. companies need to hire the best and the brightest–the hardest workers. Sometimes they play hard on the weekend–perhaps a manual should be put out explaining what is okay and what is not.
