Apr920096:07 pm

The potential trap that could be social networking (!)

News out of Yahoo Sports: one NFL team is friending potential draft picks on Facebook and MySpace with fake profiles of alluring women. The idea behind this “Trojan horse” is to unlock “a door to a world of Internet pictures and information which most NFL teams are now consistently compiling to help polish their dossiers on draft picks.” As a fan of the Cincinnati Bengals, a team that has had somewhere in the range of 10-15 players get arrested in the past few years, I can understand why teams might want to know if a potential player is a liability.

While I’ve never heard of an employer luring a potential employee into a Facebook trap like this (seems pretty dubious and underhanded, though I guess there’s nothing illegal about it), it’s fairly common knowledge that employers often do Google candidates and check Facebook/MySpace pages, so always be mindful of how you are presenting yourself in the social networking world. You don’t ever want something you figured only your friends would see to come back and haunt you, like it did for this Twitter user.

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2 Responses to “The potential trap that could be social networking (!)”

  1. G says:

    “He had a big picture of a bunch of drug money and drugs on a carpet.” A photo of drugs and money on a carpet??? What does that even look like? And who puts that on their MySpace page? If you’re dumb enough to have salacious, unflattering, or compromising information/photos on your pages, maybe you don’t deserve the job. If you put it out there, you can be guaranteed it will be found. In my opinion, you should view your facebook, twitter, etc., pages the same way you do a resume. Is there anything on there you would be embarrassed of if a potential employer found it? Unless, of course, you’re looking for a job as a member of a drug cartel, then by all means, keep the photo of the drugs and money on a carpet on your profile.

  2. Mark Overmann says:

    How can one tell the difference between a bunch of regular money and a bunch of drug money? Is money automatically drug money if it’s photographed next to a pile of drugs on a carpet? I have a lot of questions on this subject….

    Anyway, I think your advice is right on, G— that social networking profiles should be treated just as seriously as your resume, and scrubbed of anything that could potentially be embarrassing or compromise your ability to get a job.

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