"My blood runs cold, my memory has just been sold, My angel is the Centerfold."
You know, J Giels was a visionary. I don't just say that because I'm a nerd for 80s music with questionable themes. Here he was in 1982 with the song "Centerfold" (which, by the way, was at number 1 for 6 weeks, acting as further proof that America loves the naked girl next door) long before facebook, twitter, myspace and the online world in general. Yes, the song is about the girl you imagined was naked as a teen actually being naked as an adult, but it's also about public exposure, and what people are ready to see and what they aren't ready to see. I find it interesting that his ultimate goal at the end of the song is to find somewhere with the girl to, referring to her clothes, "Take 'em off in private."
I've written on this topic before, but recently it has been brought back in to my direct line of view. See, I have a very good friend who is a corporate recruiter, and on those occasions when she needs to have a "Really?!" session with someone, she calls me. Last week was by far one of the biggest job searching blunder calls that I've seen in a while.
She emailed me a resume from a potential candidate, and asked me to call her before I opened it. When I called, immediately, she started laughing and told me to go ahead and open the resume. Everything looked pretty normal to me, and the candidate looked pretty good on paper. I wasn't sure yet what was so funny. At the top of her resume, she had listed her social networking sites, and included links to her profiles, that she had listed under a section that said "See my personality!." My friend told me to click on the Facebook link. As soon as the page loaded, I realized why she was finding such humor in the situation.
What lay before me was a totally open FB page, no security settings, and a profile pic that showed more of that candidate than any HR professional would want to see, as she was taking a shot of booze upside down while wearing a tank top, leaving little to the imagination. "See my personality," indeed. My friend told me to read her status updates, and while I won't quote them for you, I will tell you they were a 60/40 mix of where she was going to party and who with combined with how much she hated her job and the current people she worked with.
No recruiter will touch that with a 10 foot pole, let alone a reply email.
Keep your wits about you on line folks, especially if you don't understand how to use privacy settings. Pictures of what you're too drunk to remember, Google never forgets.