Friday, May 6, 2011

I promise not to. . .

I promise never to check out your Facebook page.

As a creative recruiter, I have no desire to see your personal Facebook details. None. Zero.

The more I hear about HR folks and recruiters doing background checks on candidates on Facebook, the more I ask myself: Why would I ever want to do that**?

**keep in mind, I am quite possibly the only recruiter on this planet that feels this way.

Isn't Facebook the place we say silly things and post funny tidbits? Isn't it the place to spend mindless, wasteful time? I think it is and I really don't care what silly fun a candidate conducts on Facebook.

Looking on someone's page, someone I don't really even know, is creepy snoopy to me.

I will check out your twitter page, especially if your tweets are about advertising, design or inspiration.
I will check out your portfolio site. Um, duh.
I will check out your blog, especially if your blog is about advertising, design or inspiration.
I will call your references, as well as call people through my own network to check up on your skills.

But really, I have no interest in your dog photos, your foursquare checkins, your self-portraits from your best friend's bachelorette party.

I try to understand the motivation of knowing a candidate's "darker" side. So I guess I can find out if they drink (well, pretty sure I already assume that if they work in advertising). What the heck else am I going to find? Especially at the junior level when the candidates are about 4 minutes out of college. Wouldn't all I find be shots of silly drunk nights and links to even sillier content?

So, I promise never to check out your Facebook page.

But remember!! The 109,583 other recruiting professionals do.

1 comment:

Abdulrahman Jaber said...

That was interesting .. but the truth that most are digging about many things "even in dog photos" :)
Thank you for sharing these ideas in you blog :)

Abdulrahman