6 to 20% employers look up your social networking page
Enjoying the anonymity of the internet in social networking? Are you revealing a bit more in Orkut, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, or BlogSpot? Extreme political opinions, photos, college pranks, weekend preferences and more?
An increasingly popular trend, graduates stepping out of universities and looking ahead for their first interviews are closing their social networking pages. Reason: Big brother is watching. Job hunters are increasingly conscious of anything they put into the online sphere-even e-mail, which, of course, can be forwarded to anyone.
These are not entirely paranoia. There is anecdotal evidence and some HR reports talk about corporate recruiters are Googling potential employees, having interns log onto social networking sites to check out an applicants profile, and using the online world as another way to check references. This trend, combined with the growing population of sites like Orkut, Facebook and MySpace, has many young people uneasy and unsure about how to navigate a new world.
B-school administrators and professors are beginning to advise students on maintaining a...