Earlier this week, I was talking to my number once client. She revealed to me that she has a project getting ready to kick off. As part of that project she has to hire 10 new people and get them trained. My friend was talking to a mutual friend who recommended that her (the mutual friend) son would be suited for a position as he was going to school and having a little extra spending money would be nice. Hey, in this day and age who wouldn't want a litte extra cash on hand??? Certainly not me and certainly not a young college student.
As my friend and I got to talking about hiring people and how tricky that always was. The tricky part came when a background check would only reveal so little, especially for young adults. I told her that a growing trend is for employers (or potential employers) to Google a potential new hire to see what information they can find about the individual.
To prove my point we "Googled" the name of the mutual friend's son. Well, Google revealed that he has a Facebook page as well as the standard MySpace page. So, my client clicked on the MySpace link and to our surprised it was locked as private. I told her that was a good thing as it prevented others from finding out too much or seeing way too much. Then we were off to the Facebook page.
My client was not thrilled at what she saw there. The young man had as his primary photo a picture of him and someone else throwing what appears to be gang signs and the international hand sign for not the number one. If you could have seen my client's face when she saw the picture, it was a look of shock and then confusion.
Shock at how could this "nice young man" have compromised himself in such a manner by allowing himself to be seen in such a picture? I told her that it is not uncommon for kids to be kids. However, if the young people today want to be taken seriously in the workplace they need to start taking themselves seriously. They need to take responsibility for what they post online. Sure it may be cute, it may be funny, but it will certainly make any potential employer think twice about who they want to represent them and their business.
The confusion was based on whether or not to bring him into the project? Does she not hire him and risk losing a friend or does she hire him and risk him losing customers? It certainly took her to a place she did not want to be.
I did recommend that she talk to the young man, look him in the eye and tell him "If I was any other employer your would be no where near my place of business, but because of who your parents and I are to one another please change your online pictures to reflect a more responsible individual before showing up for work on Monday."
Of course, I added that she can check and if he still has not changed the pics by the time Monday morning rolls around. Stand your ground and kindly tell the young man to go home as he cannot complete a simple request as a condition of employment then he could not be trusted to complete any other task set before him.
Folks, this might sound harsh but in the end, it is called Business for a reason.
Here are some Technorati Tags:
• Dave Guerra • potential employee • employer • facebook pic • online reputation • everyone is watching • American Red Cross • Hire A Hero
No comments:
Post a Comment