Social media privacy goes both ways in the interview process!

 

It goes both ways
The thorny subject of social media privacy and online candidate checking raised its head a few weeks ago (again), when I had a discussion (well you can call it that!) with an HR Manager who was niaive at best.

I don’t need to go into a lengthy discussion about this, as it is to flaming obvious! I was explaining to this HR Manager some of the advice I give to job seekers when trying to get an advantage in the recruiting process. Nothing overly clever, just some basic stuff like:

  • Search for the interviewer on LinkedIn and read their profile
  • X-Ray search them if can’t access full LinkedIn profile, so they get full background
  • Google them (obviously!)
  • Do a search on www.pipl.com for more links
  • Do a Twitter and Facebook search as well
  • Basically, find as much information as you can about the interviewer

Shall we say this HR Manager was not best pleased? I got accused of being a trouble maker and a bad influence on candidates!!!

My answer (direct quote); “Stop being a prat and take your head out from where the sun doesn’t shine!”

I continued…..”Are you telling me that you don’t ever do an online search (of any kind) for candidate either during selection or pre/post an interview?” [loaded question as I already knew the answer was yes! ]

The pregnant pause is always a good close……….

On admittance of their use of social media to ‘check people out’, I just turned the tables on them; “so If it is good enough for you to do your homework on candidates, why isn’t it ok for candidates to do their homework on you (the interviewer) using the same social media channels ?”

Suffice to say, the argument (sorry I meant to say discussion) ended soon after that!!

Many people doing the recruiting and interviewing simply forget or don’t even consider that candidates can also search their online profiles. It is in fact a superb way of helping in an interview, if you gone to some length to do your homework on the interviewer. Finding commonality is a great way of positively breaking the ice at an interview.

So whichever side of the interviewing table you sit, just bear in mind that the person opposite you may know more about you than you think!

RSS logo cup

If you like reading this blog, then click on the orange RSS icon here and get the latest Sirona Says posts delivered to your RSS reader or your inbox the moment they come out.

Link to original post

We consult, train, tweet, blog, text, post, speak, share, read, update, photograph, video and talk about recruitment. At Sirona Consulting we work with companies, recruitment agencies, RPO’s HR & recruitment technology vendors and conference / event organisers, helping them understand and integrate social media into their recruitment strategies. We have have been doing this now for twelve years, working with many companies along the way, from small independent recruiters right through to large international companies. We are honest, ethical and have experience of working across a range of different industry sectors delivering success in the UK, Europe, Middle East, APAC and the United States.

Website: http://sironaconsulting.com

Uncategorized

Leave a Reply