I actually never knew that employers use social media to check up on our accounts. This is a new thing for me. Luckily I don’t use much social media to actually affect me. I do use Facebook and Instagram but I hardly post stuff on it. I mainly use it to send messages to my relatives outside of the country. We are all represented online. Everything we do is kept somewhere on the internet where anyone can view it. It could be a totally random stranger or even the government. So we have to be very careful   about what we wanna put online and how we want to express and represent ourselves. There are many threats, such as hackers and cyber bullying which affect everyone.

When I read the article “Employers scour Web for details on applicants”, I was shocked that they actually look you up on Facebook to see what type of person you really are. What I don’t agree with is that they automatically assume that they are immature by just the way they speak or the photos they put up. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they are a bad person just because they have a photo of themselves drinking. Maybe they were too stressed and needed a stress reliever? Overall it’s bad they judge so easily.

When I looked myself up, I only found my Facebook. I didn’t find my instagram or openlab. My Facebook is in private anyway so there is no way anyone can see what I say or my photos. I’m represented online as a private person which is great. I don’t want employers to judge me without even getting to know me through a proper interview. It’s because of these articles that I learned that our online identity can affect our job prospects. From an article I read, “One in five employers uses social networks in hiring process”. Most employers tossed the candidates applications because they didn’t like what they saw from their online accounts. This is unethical in my opinion because they don’t know anything. They just assume by looks and false information. They don’t know what type of day we were having that day that caused us to post that photo or news feed.

In conclusion, from what I learned in class and online, this is absolutely outrageous. Even to this day, we are getting judged and recognized by what we say or do on social media. I don’t like that employers have to decline people by what we say. The proper way is by interviews and in person, not online. Social media is the reason there is cyber bullying and other threats. Bottom line is we have to think smarter and be more clever of what we do online because we just don’t know who is stalking or watching our every move.

Links:

1. http://www.computerworld.com/article/2532900/web-apps/one-in-five-employers-uses-social-networks-in-hiring-process.html

2. http://www.newsday.com/classifieds/jobs/employers-scour-web-for-details-on-applicants-1.2133284

3. http://blogs.wsj.com/atwork/2012/12/17/colleges-pay-to-protect-students-from-toxic-google-results/

When it comes to social media I don’t have much, just an Instagram, were I post pictures of things I like to do and the occasional “selfie”. However, my Instagram is private but after reading the Employers Scour Web for Details on Applicants article I saw that Deljanin assumes that employers have a way of breaching privacy settings. Also another thing that I realized when reading this article was not only do employers look for silly pictures of you on the web but they also look for eBay comments. When I googled my name a couple of picture had popped up from my Facebook days when I was about 14 or 15 years old other than that most of my blog post from open lab had popped up. What did come up when I googled my name was this app that I use to record my speed, miles ridden and  time whenever I am riding my bike either to work or school or just riding around for fun. Other than that there wasn’t anything really up there on the web about myself that I think would limit me from finding a job.

I did realize that my online identity can affect your job prospects, I avoid this though by having limited social networks and knowing what to post and what not to post. However, there are many ways in which social media and affect your job prospects in a good way for example I am an Electrical Engineering and Technology major and after I have finished my project and it worked I have posted a video showing how it works and showing the program that I wrote. Another way social media can help your job prospects in a good way is by posting pictures of your work on Tumblr or another social networking site. For example in the spring of 2014 I was interviewing my neighbor Taip who has his own business and I asked him “can social media help me find a job?” His answer to me was “yes, of course.”  One of Taip’s friend that helps him out with his construction works actually has a Tumblr site were he post jobs that he does on house and he post the steps on how to install the system or whatever he is installing. So this type of social media can be good for ones business and ones also for ones future job if they saw his work.

I don’t think its ethical for employers to “google” their job candidates, and then use those finding online in their decision about employment just because your social site is for you to connect with friends and have silly pictures up because even if you post those silly pictures the way you act with friends is not going to be the same way you are going to act with employers. However, when you start abusing social media by calling out and going to a ball game or party or even the beach that’s when I feel like its ethical for employers to look at your social media. It’s also crazy how one in five employers use social networks in hiring process and how one of their major concerns was poor communication skills which I disagree with just because I think it is okay to use “slang” when commenting on a friends picture or posting something of your own.

Cited:

One in five employers uses social networks in hiring process

Colleges Pay to Protect Students from Toxic Google Results

Employers scour Web for details on applicants

As the technology progresses throughout the years, the ways people perceive others change simultaneously. Technological advancements have such influence that they give more information about the person, more ways to dispose lives and provide a completely new dimension for an individual to expose its life. According to the article “Employers scour Web for details on applicants” job seekers should be aware, because “potential employers are scouring the Web for information about you — everywhere from Facebook walls to eBay’s comment pages.”

There is two major consequences of this case. It is bad because the jobseekers have to limit their web freedom, and control their exposure in the internet. On the other hand, this is good and beneficial even, it lets jobseekers to brand themselves and recommend them by providing the good image in the internet. This can be crucial in the high competitive job proposals.

The article I found is “What Your Social Media Reputation Says to Employers” written by Emily Driscoll, consists of the information that might optimize the image we create in the internet. In her article, the author claims that out of 69% student who are preparing for the future employment, “only 16% are spending time proactively improving their web presence.” Driscoll suggests that students who apply for the job have to check on their future employers similarly as the employers check on the potential employees. The author gives four tips from online and career experts for graduates to optimize their online identities. The first tip is to search for your name in every major search engine and find if there is some information that needs to be deleted or revised. Second tip is to not rely on privacy settings, certain posts and photos might be displayed despite the privacy restrictions. The third tip is to delete any information, posts or photos, which can be considered inappropriate for the public setting. The fourth tip is to keep your posts and comments grammatically and spelled correctly, this will make a good impression on the potential employers.

While I searched my name in the internet, I have found myself in the OpenLab, which consists some of my best-written works, and my Google+ account, which I do not use at all. Therefore, after this brief search I have not found anything surprising out there about myself. Still, the situation is that until after I have heard about it in the class, I was not thinking about it, was not expecting it to have any influence on my future job experiences.

Colleges are doing a beneficial deed, according to article “Colleges Pay to Protect Students from Toxic Google Results.” As it is mentioned in the article, graduates or jobseekers have to be aware of the possibility that potential employers might use internet to “spy” on them, and use the gathered dossier to make a negative decision. I think this kind of warnings should be provided in elementary schools. Also whenever a new user register in the internet, the social networks should make a pop-up massege to warn their clients that the information disposd on their spaces might be used against them. The users will be notified and could post and comment and use the network in the safe way. This way there would be much less ignorant decisions made by internet users, and much higher chances that they would get a job.

Although, I do not find it unethical, I think that unwieldy posts or comments, or even photos are NOT the most accurate way to get a decent and solid judgment about real character of a person. I believe that a person behaves differently in public setting and in private setting amongst their friends for instance, like in Facebook. The problem is that people have to keep this boundary and do not expose what is private to the public spaces in the internet as it is mentioned in the article “What Your Social Media Reputation Says to Employers.”

I care about the privacy of my life, and do not want to overexpose my personal life or brand my life in general. That is why I have deleted my Facebook account number of years ago. I use numerous other social media networks. With the care I tighten all of the privacy setting in the accounts that are to be exposed in the internet and try to not brand myself as much. I also try to not write my real name and use all of my accounts under the different names and pseudonyms. I guess this is my approach not brand myself. This way I can still be in touch with needed people and have access to the functions of these websites however, with no harm to my future and my reputation. This is just my choice; however, it is not fully beneficial. As it is written in article “Employers scour Web for details on applicants” online representation, if it is positive, can be beneficial by convincing the employer to make positive decision.

References:

1. Driscoll Emily, “What Your Social Media Reputation Says to Employers”, published June 03, 2013

2 . Marcus Dave, “Employers scour Web for details on applicants“, Updated July 23, 2010

3. Weber Lauren,  “Colleges Pay to Protect Students from Toxic Google Results.” published Dec 17, 2012

When I Google myself online, I found that some of my tweets and status updates were readily available on the internet. I was shocked by this discovery because I had only expected my basic personal information to be displayed publicly, but not the things I posted to close friends. Although I did not have anything controversial in my search results, I do not think I branded myself suitably. From the class readings, I learned that I should use social networks as a platform to create a good impression to potential employers (Marcus and Kitchen). I suppose that my results did not highlight a professional impression to someone who has never met me. Supposedly, if a potential boss was to google my name, it is unlikely that they will be impressed with what they find regarding my professional ambitions and image.

Though I have learned from class readings that it is advisable to have an impressionable online identity, I do not think it is ethical to google prospective job candidates. From the course readings, some companies match a person’s patterns in order to determine whether they are eligible for credit loans. However, some people use aliases and fake information on social media to protect their identity from online predators. I presume that they would be disadvantaged if credit companies used their online profiles to determine their credit worth. Further, googling people’s names can lead to discrediting of potential employees as a result of mistaken identity.

In a 2010 article by Stephanie Goldberg, a young man changed his name from Dustin to Gustin in order to improve his chances of getting an internship. The young man explained the fact that employers google their applicants is unsettling. He also added that it is an unfair approach to secure employment since one’s personal life is not a measure of their ability to do the job (Goldberg). In conclusion, as much as the online identity has become a popular method of filtering job applicants I do not support it, and consider it is unethical and disrespectful. Besides, it promotes dishonesty among applicants.

Work Cited

Goldberg, Stephanie. ‘Young Job-Seekers Hiding Their Facebook Pages – CNN.Com’.Edition.cnn.com. N.p., 2010. Web. 22 Sept. 2014.

Marcus, Dave, and Patricia Kitchen. ‘Employers Scour Web For Details On Applicants – Newsday’. Newsday. N.p., 2010. Web. 22 Sept. 2014.

Social media has renovated our lives  in the 21st century and how we communicate with others worldwide. There are positive and negative effects that social media has brought to our society. In the article that I found titled How Does Your Social Media Affect Your Next Job talks about the changes that social media has brought in our community. Moreover, it discusses how social media can be also used as a device in order to search a job that a person might be interested in getting into.

One example of a negative effect that social media has brought in our society is that a person can be easily be searched in the internet if you type his/her name example in google.  As an applicant in my opinion, I wouldn’t want my employer to go through my account to browse through my personal business because that is my privacy and it’s unethical in my opinion to judge someone based on what they saw on social media. According to both articles that were given to us in class Colleges Pay to Protect Students from Toxic Google Results and Employers scour Web for details on applicants basically stating that Job seekers must be aware of what they post in their social media because employers in the company will look through it and if ever they find any suspicious pictures of acts that an applicant has been doing, employers will not accept that applicant to be a part of their company if they have been caught doing immature things.  On the other hand, social media can be also  used as a positive device to anyone especially applicants who are seeking for a job. In the article that I searched How Does Your Social Media Affect Your Next Job, it posted different social media sites that people are accustomed to such as Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn site that people are not very accustomed to.  A social media called LinkedIn focuses on an individual’s personal life and career leading to job opportunities and job offers.  Similarly, to the article given to us, Colleges Pay to Protect students from Toxic Google results it talks about how social media can be useful in selling yourself to the employers and how to get  a job using a social media site.

The other article that I found interesting titled,  To Blog or Not To Blog talks about job search blogging and whether it’s appropriate for the employers to look through an applicant’s social media and judge them basing on what they saw.  This article mainly focuses on the things that a person can post in his/her blog and what not to post so that it will not be used by anyone in the future when you are applying a job.  In my opinion Alison Doyle who wrote the article To Blog or Not To Blog is making a point by asserting the things that should and the things that shouldn’t be posted in social media. It is very important in my opinion to think first before posting anything online because the posts that you put online might be something you’ll regret later on in your life. Writing a blog post in a hastily manner is not a good idea to put on social media because it affects how you look as an individual in the society that we live in.

Social media has advanced our society in several ways. But it also affected our lives the way we communicate with the society especially when we apply for any types of jobs. Social media is useful to everyone in our society because we can definitely communicate easier with one other with ease. I have nothing against  social media but we all should be careful on what we post online because it may be used against us in the future when we are applying to a job.

Links:

“World’s Largest Professional Network | LinkedIn.” World’s Largest Professional Network | LinkedIn. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Sept. 2014.    LinkedIn  

“How Does Your Social Media Affect Your Next Job? -.” Infinity Consulting Solutions How Does Your Social Media Affect Your Next Job Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Sept. 2014.  How Does Your Social Media Affect Your Next Job?

Doyle, Alison. “To Blog or Not to Blog?” About. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Sept. 2014.                To Blog or Not to Blog?

In the 21st century social media has become part of many people’s daily life. There are good and bad things about using social media. Let’s take Facebook for example, it serves as a great way to meet new friends and share your adventures with your friends that lives in a different city or country. The bad things about having social media is that it could affect your job, and can be used for both stalking and cyber bullying.

I think that the way you are represented online depends on yourself alone, because you are the person that is providing and uploading the information which categorize and represents your online identity, you have a choice to present the good things about yourself as well as the bad things. The article we discussed in class titled ” Colleges Pay to protect students from Toxic Google Results” by Lauren Weber published on December 17, 2012. by The Wall Street Journal talks about ways that students can brand themselves online by using the website BrandYourself, the function of this website is to help move positive information to the top of a search. I do not like the idea of branding yourself, using website such as LinkedIn and BrandYourself to add information about your academic achievements and your work experiences, it’s like a second resume and I do not see the point of it. I would actually prefer the old fashioned way of doing things, sending in a cover letter and resume, and then have a face to face interview with the employer, because to me, meeting the employer and selling yourself in front of them are more persuasive then letting them read a wall of text, which has the same information as the resume. I personally do not use any social medias other than Open Lab, which is used for getting information about homework and submitting them like what I am doing right now making this blog post, other than that I do not post anything else nor do I upload any information about myself.

According to an article by ALISSA REYES published by theaggie.org on February 14th, 2014. talks about how Potential Employers are using different tools that integrate social media to help them decide who to hire for the job. Potential Employers using these tools usually used to see how the applicant conduct themselves and how they interact with their co-workers and more importantly customers. My opinion are neutral about the ways the potential employers are using to find information and even make judgement on their applicants and workers. I think that if I were an employer I would love to know more about the person am about to hire, to see if this person will be beneficial or detrimental to my company. Of course I do not think it’s a good way to judge someone just based on what they post on social media, a person can be a party goer and do crazy things in personal lives but can also be professional when it comes to their job, as the old saying goes “Don’t judge a book by its cover”. I personally think that it’s fine for employers to look up information on their applicants through social media, but they should not judge their applicant just based on what they found through the social media, and that it would be more beneficial to actually interview their applicants first before deciding on rather or not the person will beneficial or detrimental to the company.

Reference Site

Theaggie Website

LinkedIn website

BrandYourself website