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21 August 2007
10 Employment blunders committed on social networking sites and blogs...the fastest way to stand in the unemployment queue... People who interact on social networking sites on the web - or who make reckless or fanciful comments on their own blogs - might just be jeopardising their employment or career advancement chances as employers are increasingly accessing these sites and picking up on unsavoury commentary, said Org Geldenhuys, a director of Pretoria-based IT recruitment company, Abacus Recruitment. Geldenhuys said this new tendency to "air all" on the Internet is particularly coming from the younger generation. This includes university and Technikon students and "twenty-something people already in the workplace". "The world is increasingly becoming a digital world and any expressions printed on the Web remain there for all to read - not just for now, but for a long time in the future. Students who post hilarious stories about their weekend antics, as well as pictures of the latest pub crawl, don't realise that potential employers might just access these sites. Which employer is going to hire someone when they see a picture of the candidate falling around, drunk, at a varsity party? The employer will think, ok, let's rather err on the side of caution here - let's not hire this person. So varsity graduates who are looking for jobs - who have posted fun times on their personal blogs - might just consider this for a moment. Everything on the Internet is public domain. If you think posting some off-the-wall thoughts about childish pranks, or some serious political thoughts - together with some dodgy 'fun' pictures - is going to advance your career possibilities, well, think again," said Geldenhuys. The latest statistics show that up to 20% of employers are using 'social networking' sites to run job searches on job applicants. Meanwhile, 68% of employers use search engines to check on candidates. In a recent survey of employers, 20% said that they used sites like Friends Reunited and MySpace to run searches on job applicants at some stage during the ongoing recruitment process. Sixty-eight percent said they used search engines such as Yahoo! and Google, while 60% admitted that the searched blogs. Tara Ricks, MD of Joslin Rowe's permanent recruitment business, highlights the "Top Ten Biggest Blunders". These include references to drug abuse, extremist/intolerant views, criminal activity, evidence of excessive alcohol consumption, inappropriate pictures (including nudity), foul language, links to unsuitable web sites, lewd jokes, silly e-mail addresses and membership of silly/pointless groups. "Even little things like a silly or provocative e-mail address, such as 'hotblonde.com' is potentially off-putting for potential employers," said Geldenhuys."We live in a world where we cry out for the rights to our privacy, and yet a growing number of people are inadvertently opening up personal information for the whole world to see. Prudence is required." |