A recent CNN article pointed out that a number of students have been changing their Facebook names in order to hide their profile from college recruiters and potential employers. This comes after a recent survey commissioned by Microsoft revealed that 79% of recruiters look up their candidates’ information online: that means they will Google your name, check your LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook and more. In today’s environment, is it realistic to try to hide your information from prospective employers, or should we all accept that we have to let it all hang out?
The CNN article discusses a series of students who use the tactic of changing their Facebook names’ spelling order, so that their first name and last names have reversed first letters. For instance, John Doe would become Dohn Joe. People in their networks still maintain their connections to the users, and the photo remains the same, so friends wouldn’t have much of a problem with the change, but when recruiters came along and attempt to search for John, they can’t find him. Some users also create secondary accounts, in this example the new account would be named John Doe, which has limited information and only select, flattering photos.
This is a concept also used by a lot of people in the workforce. They have two accounts, one for personal use and one for work, and this is a way they can keep the networks completely separate. Some users will say that the work network is better accomplished through a social network like LinkedIn, but employees in large companies with big pools of corporate acquaintances seem to like to use Facebook to connect with people in a light-hearted manner. Also, you see a lot of younger employees connecting with older employees in this way: the younger employee has to hide all of his college Facebook shenanigans, and since the older employee has only been on as a family man, he has nothing to hide and keeps his single Facebook account as his corporate and personal one.
The real question here is whether this tactic can do more harm than good. Since Facebook allows users to look up profiles based on email addresses, John Doe might get caught when a recruiter or school finds his Dohn Joe account, and that would be the most incriminating thing of all: he clearly is sneaky and has something to hide. This fact means that we may be moving to a point where we are going to need to trust the Facebook privacy settings, even though there have been holes before, to help us separate our social circles and corporate circles. I’ve heard people say that Facebook will change the way people relate to their coworkers by promoting a more open relationship, but that’s naive, in my opinion. There will always need to be a separation between personal and work, as managers and other positions of responsibility depend largely on their projected image, and that is tough to maintain when there are photos of the weekend bender circulating the office.
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Why do people set up their security settings so that recruiters can see their Facebook profile anyway? It's pretty simple to lock it down.
I used to have my profile open to friends of friends, but even that is dicey, so I've tightened it up.
Comment by D. Faught — April 5, 2010 @ 9:02 am
These games are pointless in a world where the majority of users share the same name with countless others. It's a rarity to find only ONE person with a particular name. So, stick up a photo of a plant in place of your face and make your profile "private" and don't broadcast your city, and use a different email address than the one you gave on a job application (does everyone REALLY only use just one email? Heck, I've got three personal ones, a fourth I rarely use, a work one and my Facebook.)
Comment by Ally — April 5, 2010 @ 11:10 am
I think it would be wiser to clean up your Facebook profile so that it looks more professional. Recruiters would expect to see you have a profile online. It shows that you're connected with emerging technologies and you can display your interests/strengths.
Comment by Steve Campbell — April 5, 2010 @ 12:36 pm
If you are not intelligent enough to change your privacy settings to prevent random people from accessing your profile, you probably don't deserved to be hired.
Comment by Doug Nash — April 5, 2010 @ 1:07 pm
Our society is becoming more transparent every day.
Maybe University's should start offering a "Social Media 101" class for incoming freshmen. They could even spend the first 10 minutes showing them where the privacy settings button is.
Comment by chris Olbekson — April 5, 2010 @ 2:40 pm
I hear you. Privacy settings are key, and yes, a social media 101 for freshman would be wise.
Comment by Neil Vidyarthi — April 6, 2010 @ 1:33 am
I find it weird that someone would think I had something to hide because I didn't want everyone and their brother seeing my private life. I am not overly private but I don't want to know about my co-workers private lives either. Hence the privacey blocks on my Facebook page.
I'd delete the page before I'd open it to my employer.
Comment by elin — April 6, 2010 @ 4:30 pm
This fb page exists for just such occasions…
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Uses-A-Different-Na...
Comment by boblawblaugh — April 14, 2010 @ 5:07 pm
Facebook’s policy against using fake names is counterproductive in this job market. As a teenager, I figured out pretty early that using your real name allows anyone and everyone to find you, find out your details, etc. I figured at some point that the more well known social networks would be fodder for nosy companies to snoop on you while you work for them are attempting to gain employment. So, the idea of using my real name on a social network does not seem logical
Yet, Facebook seems to throw all that common sense to the wind by saying no to fake names. Worse, there are people with names that might sound fake or that share with some big name celebrity/person….who are unceremoniously dumped from Facebook. The disabling of the account usually does not present the user with means to know exactly why they were disabled. Then comes the lengthy process in which to appeal to a very crappy “customer service” department.
Facebook should go the way of the do-do
Comment by Kat — June 14, 2010 @ 4:51 pm