March 22, 2012

Would You Give Recruiters Your Facebook Login?

First published on Technorati by Adi Gaskell.

I recently wrote that a quick glance at your Facebook profile is a better indicator of the potential success of a job candidate than more traditional aptitude tests employed by recruiters.

The reasoning is that your Facebook page provides a better window into your life than an interview does, where you’re often putting on your best face.  Little did I know that recruiters would take this a step too far.

The Boston Globe is reporting that some recruiters are asking job candidates to give up their Facebook login details so they can check over their profiles.

They tell the story of a New York man who was applying for a job as a statistician.  He thought the interview was going well until he was asked to provide his Facebook login details so they could look at his account.  Like me he was rightly amazed they could ask such a thing and withdrew his application.  He said that he did not wish to work for a company that would even think of asking for this information.

Whilst you’d like to think this was a lone misinformed company it does appear to be increasingly common.  Whilst it’s long been the case that employers would stick your name into Google and check you out on social networks, the latest Facebook privacy settings have often meant that they can no longer snoop on your Facebook profile.  So they’re simply taking the brazen step of asking you for your details.

“I have heard about recruiters and hiring managers performing searches on social media channels when vetting out candidates, but directly asking for a password is akin to asking for the password to an employee’s email account or other password-protected material,” said Jake Wengroff, global director, social media strategy and research, Frost & Sullivan. “It is a clear invasion of privacy.”

A quick straw poll on my own social networks suggests most of you would tell the recruiter where to stick their job as such a request is a clear invasion of privacy.

If you’d like some tips on how to make your social media profiles a job magnet I’ve provided 5 do’s and don’t here.

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