Didn't get the job because I like horror movies?

[Skyman00]

People who are looking for a job should set their Facebook settings to private. And not allow anyone to view their page unless they are considered to be personal friends. I was just had two conversations that were very similar to this, one with my Brother and one with another friend. If I were a lawyer for a company, I would strongly advise them agains this current corporate trend of viewing job candidates Facebook pages and asking potential job candidates to friend them. I can't believe that Human Resources departments are allowing this practice. I was once an entry level supervisor with the power to hire and fire employees, at a large, high tech corporation. We received some very good and very specific management training. We were instructed never to ask personal questions during an interview. Nothing about age, religious beliefs, political affiliations, sexual preference, racial identity, country of origin or any of that nature. It's illegal to discriminate and make hiring decisions based the answers to such questions. So, even if it were legal to ask, you wouldn't want to ask these questions, because you would be putting yourself in jeopardy of being accused of discrimination. I think it's a very dumb move to open your company up to this kind risk. The instant you access and read someone's Facebook page, you can find out their age, religion and everything else that we were warned about asking interviewees, during our management truing classes. You are completely free to discriminate against people once you acquire such knowledge. Companies that allow this kind of practice seem like cheesy, irresponsible, fly by night, unprofessional companies to me. It seems like a very small company, Mom and Pop operation, non corporate minded, type of thing to do. You might as well say something like, "So, Mr. Johnson, are you black? Because, Johnson seems like a black name to me. How old are you? Because, your resume goes back a long way. Your voice sounds rather effeminate, You're not gay are you Mr. Johnson?' If you performed interviews like this, you would be answering to upper management, with your balls in a sling. Yet, this is exactly the kind of information that a Facebook page can provide. They might be able to fool a few hundred interviewees with these seemingly innocent friend requests, but I doubt they could fool a jury in a high dollar court case. It's strange to me that a company would let their Human Resources departments and management teams dictate policies like this, when there are clearly legal risks involved. I wonder if they even consult legal advisors before they pull this kind of crap. The tiny amount of insight they might gain about job candidates, by using their Facebook profiles and webpages as research tools, is absolutely wiped out by the great liability that comes with such knowledge. If I were a company leader, I would light my employees' @sses up like Roman candles if they pulled this crap. It's very risky and very unprofessional. And for what? So they can find out if they can talk to you about movies, when they're supposed to be working? I would bet that a nice long meeting with a legal counselor might open their eyes to the kind of legal mess they might be stepping into, when they take the company down this twisted path.