your digital shadow

Brian Solis, blogger at PR 2.0, never ceases to produce interesting posts. Opening my RSS reader today, I came across one titled Casting a Digital Shadow; Your Reputation Precedes You. Not the most information-intense article, but a good overview of keeping your online identity in check. He gave some great examples of people being fired from jobs (or not being hired) because of information or photos they had posted on Facebook, Twitter, or some other social networking site. He states in the post that CareerBuilder.com recently completed a study in which

The professional network asked 2,500 hiring managers whether they
search Facebook or other social networks to discover information about
prospective employees. An astonishing, but not unexpected, 38-percent
of respondents said yes. In comparison, only 22% of hiring managers
acknowledged searching social networks in 2008.

He later cites another survey done in 2006 where 77% of job recruiters had used search engines to do background checks on candidates.

I’m always so surprised when I see Facebook friends post pictures of themselves wasted at some party or complaining on and on about work when I know their employers are just as experienced in social networking as they are. I’ve stressed that they should be aware of the backlash their posts could have, but they say, “Oh, they’ll never see it.” Or even better, “They don’t care.” I don’t bother going into it, but inside I’m screaming, but what about that boss 5 years down the road? What you post on the internet is there…forever. Even when you delete things they are often archived or cached. The last boss I had openly said that he’d checked out all of the job candidates on Facebook before he hired me.

If you’ve never given thought to how your online identity can affect you or your think anyone warning you is feeding you bull, do yourself a favor and check out Casting a Digital Shadow; Your Reputation Precedes You or do a simple search for similar articles.

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