The Potential Disaster of Living for Potential Employers

I randomly came across this interesting blog post.

I agree with the blogger. I think as time goes on we are sacrificing too much of our privacy. When a few clicks can solve the problem, why not do so?

I mentioned to this blogger in another forum that there are those who see the use of privacy settings to be problematic, because then employers will ask,

"What are they hiding?" So people I know keep their Facebooks totally open, and then delete my comments because "potential employers may look me up, and I don't want them to know about that."

This is just another example of why I think I have failed to embrace the traditional job search. (And failed to succeed at it.)

We are told that potential employers will judge us by our resume. But also the format of the resume. And the font. And we shouldn't use any other color paper but white because that is not professional.

Employers will get a first impression of us based on our clothes. (Assuming we get the interview, which I usually do not.) Don't wear colors that are too loud. Be conservative or the employer will be nervous about hiring you.

The same is true of you wear you favorite cologne or perfume. Do not wear it to your interview, because the hiring manager or his secretary may be offended by, or allergic to the fragrance. And unlike anywhere else in the world, during the interview process nobody is expected to deal with someones personal style. There would be no way to hire someone with perfume that makes you sneeze, and simply request politely that when they start work, they don't wear it, and explain the problem. Nobody gets hired if someone sneezes after all.

Answer questions during an interview, but ask your own. You don't want to seem like you haven't spent 4 months researching the company. But not too many questions or you will seem pushy, or the manager will think you appear smarter than he does, and we cannot have that. Chat it up with the first person who opens the door for you while you wait. The may be the gatekeeper. Or not.

Before getting to an interview stage, never have any kind of debt at ALL, because if you can't keep your student loans paid off quickly, or can't cover your credit card bill this month, how can you be expected to be a trustworthy employee? And of course, managers WILL check your credit before hiring you.

Never let yourself be tagged in Facebook pictures you wouldn't want you boss or potential boss to see. Monitor the comments people leave on your Facebook, in case your boss or future boss decide to look you up online and see what you are up to. And NOW........

"Don't use privacy settings because your boss or potential boss will wonder what you are HIDING?" Where does it end??

Being professional, polite and able to demonstrate your ability to do the job are one thing. But when did we suddenly feel the need in this world to censor every moment of our lives for the sake of an employer or potential employer? How did it come to pass that we have to eradicate any record of our so called sins, in order to be worth hiring, even at the local cafe? Sins that everyone commits...such as being in stupid pictures, going to parties, having a few too many once in a while, going into debt. Or simply not having a resume on paper that does our intellect and our experiences justice. (Like me.)

I have goofy pictures of myself on Facebook. I post notes to my friends about really weird stuff sometimes. I make wry or off color jokes to people I have known for half of my life. And I have all my settings on private. (One reason I do not use my Facebook to network with employers.) If that makes me unmarketable...well it can line up next to my "significant full time employment gap", my less than impressive "networking abilities", my lack of "demonstrable increased salary and responsibility" on my resume, and 40 other things that have kept me from landing a full time job EVER. But a line has to be drawn somewhere. I will not pretend to be something I am not for people that only MIGHT give me a job. I guess I am Too XYZ for that.

I don't know if the 3 people in that last 7 years that granted me an interview, (that's right, only three) bothered to look into my Facebook, my blog, my letters to the editor, my cologne choice, my shoe laces, and all sort of other things, but if that is why I have never gotten any of those jobs, I think I'd rather not have them.

They can make me learn more skills. (I have been trying to do that.) But they can't make me fake my way into a personality that is not my own.