Talk
about an awkward moment: Being asked during a job interview to turnover your
Facebook and Twitter usernames (and passwords) can pose quick-decision stress. If you have
not given this forethought, you will be caught off guard or flat-footed.
The
Internet community—especially job seekers, the ACLU and indigent legal
purists—erupted with a hue-and-cry. Their loud clamor even woke up sleepy Congress.
They collectively thought this to be an egregious privacy violation.
Egregious
behavior and ethics notwithstanding, if you need a job to keep food on the
table, most job seekers will reluctantly turnover the information requested. If
you display a disgruntled look, or perhaps proffer a mild protest, and in some
cases get up and walk out, the employer basically obtained what he or she wanted
to know: How you react to real-time stress.
In a post-ethics society, ethics have become passé. Bottom line is
that they are in war to stay in business, and ethics became a casualty of that war. It would
be nice if that were not the case. Some employers will rationalize that if you
have nothing to hide, what’s your problem?
For
Joe job-seeker, what is the solution? My recommendation for those actively
seeking employment is to temporarily suspend your social media accounts such as
Facebook and Twitter. That way, if you are asked in a job interview to furnish
such information, you have the best response: “Gee, I don’t have one at the moment. Do I need to get one?”
Believe
it or not, there is a large segment of the population that could no more
suspend their social-media activities a few months than they could strangle themselves. If
you are unable to suspend such activities for five or six months, then you have
far more serious psychological and co-dependency issues to confront.
If
you are seeking an important position, be assured a background investigation
will be performed. If you have been putting trash on the Internet, you have
left a footprint. The casual Internet user may not be technically savvy to
find these things, but highly skilled background investigators can locate them.
It
only requires a few items gleaned from your past to reveal the real you. Aside
from your Internet activities, your detailed credit reports, a quick search of
public court records and previous employer comments will suffice.
Technically,
previous employers are limited in what they can legally say—especially to a
stranger over the phone. Over lunch or casual conversation, people tend to be
blabber mouths. Usually, when a previous employer simply responds emphatically
with, “No comment,” over the phone, the
prospective employer is able to draw a snap conclusion.
Closing
suggestions are as follows:
1.
Suspend your social media activities
while job hunting.
2.
Search your court records online for
any red-flag issues.
3.
Request the detailed version of your
credit report. (The credit score alone
will not suffice. You are allowed one free copy a year, but you have to
request it.)
4.
Obtain written references and
performance or evaluation reports from past employers. (If they hesitate to do so, that is a potential red-flag issue.)