why do employers take looking at facebook profiles of a potential employee so seriously?

[anonymous]

I know that facebook is not private, and anything you post can get into the wrong persons hands.its the internet after all.

but social networking is a popular thing now days, and i dont think facebook is a resume. maybe they should glance at it, but why does that determine if someone is cut out for the job? they read into it too much in my opinion.

people are people. we have lives outside of work. we arent perfect. even if you dont post a picture of yourself at a bar, other people post them regardless if you are ok with it or not. even if you untag yourself, its still there. so how is that your fault?

i posted a picture of shots. no one drinking them, just a picture of drinks. everyone made a big fuss over it. im 20 and not 21 so i guess thats a good enough reason to take it down. but really? im in college. not saying that its ok, but how is one picture of a drink a bad thing?? im not even drinking it! so that gives you a good enough reason to not hire me?


i just think that employers read into facebook profiles way too much. facebook profiles misinterpret people all the time. why dont they look into other things when looking to hire a potential employee?
things that actually portray someone, not a facebook profile!

if you want to look at my facebook when hiring me, why dont you put in the job requirements, facebook profile required.
what are your opinions on this?

[scott b]

"they read into it too much in my opinion."

Too bad it's the employer's opinion that matters and not YOURS, huh?

[780]

Are you serious? Hell, why use it as evidence in a court case then? This makes no sense.

[Kenneth]

You say that a facebook profile doesn't "actually portray" someone. That is absolutely incorrect and wrong. Nothing portrays you better than a profile of yourself that you created and added content to. What you choose to put online is a portrayal of yourself, whether you want to believe that or not. Anybody can put together a fancy resume and act like they'd be a good employee when being considered, but what is on your FB wall and profile is a much better representation of the real you then the version you want employers to see.

Employers look into a lot of things, they do not base hiring decisions solely on FB profiles, but a profile that shows that you may be a problem employee absolutely can and should be a dealbreaker.

This question sounds like you got turned down a job over your profile. Instead of complaining you should use this as a lesson, take down the picture, clean up your profile, increase your privacy settings and move forward in your job search. This is the real world, anything and everything that you put out in public can come back to bite you, so be careful with how you choose to represent yourself online.

[Quizzard]

Think of it this way: you Facebook profile is a sign of who you are. Your resume says what you have done, your profile says (or can, you'd get nothing from mine) what type of person you are. Employers spend a lot of money hiring and training, and some do think that the profile of a prospective employee is valuable insight into what type of person they are. There is a lot more to someone's suitability for a job than what appears on a resume or what comes out in an interview. Your unguarded moments are more telling.

And yeah, a photo of a drink says something about you, whether you realize it or not.

.

[Sarah]

Omg Facebook has become such a cult its contriled and sometimes you can't get into sites unless you. Have Facebook.
They use it to take take and for research and no one thinks about what private info of yours has been, poked. Proded, looked at and stored elsewhere against your input. I don't trust the going on behind it and people came seem to lice with out it.
How many people than the ones you see regularly.or have a number stored on your phone are truely friends? It's rubbish.

And yes what toy do in your own time is your business.
In the UK we can drink from 18 but there's picks of 12, 13 year olds drinking! And they don't get deleted.