Can we just talk? — Interviews in the digital age
Everyday, Facebook’s “Memories” feature constantly reminds of what I did that day 5 years ago. This might include a group picture from a party a year ago or my friend posting “barackoli” 4 years ago. It is a reminder of your digital identity and how much of your life you have exposed onto the internet. This makes me wonder what others can see — perhaps a prospective employer or my current employer.
I’ve been on Facebook since 2007, meaning if someone were to try hard enough there would be a plethora of embarrassing posts and pictures from my past. But does that really reflect who I am today? Not entirely. But if an embarrassing picture becomes a first impression of my identity for someone who may not know me, that could be problematic. At the moment I have a Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and personal portfolio website, meaning anyone from anywhere would be able to get a vague understand of who I am where ever they are. Hiring processes seem much rigorous than it once was as most often people have some digital footprint that is accessible for most people. For some people like creatives who want their work to be seen have a bigger footprint because the more exposure the better. Many of my friends who are photographers or graphic designers have created a brand for themselves, marketing their personal brand so that instead of themselves reaching out to potential clients, clients come to them. A friend of mine who works as a social marketing manager once went to an into a job interview or an art gallery and was asked “If you’re so good at your job, why do you only have 2000 followers on Instagram?”. My friend did his homework on the company before the interview and apparently the interviewer did some on him to.
Since I have never been in a hiring position I don’t know how much I would base a person off of what I see online. However on the contrary, I have based whether I would want to work for someone based off of their business and digital identity. Just based off of their social media platform branding, website design, mission statement and promo video, I would be able to get a vague idea of whether this is a company I would want to work for. But from many experiences I have learned that nothing quite compares to meeting a person face to face and truly understanding their personality. It’s like a yelp review — there might be some distasteful pictures of food posted by users but in reality it’s the best dish in town. Some people just don’t bother to care for their personal brand.
I stumbled upon these news clip from ABC (2011) and FOX (2012) about employers asking their employees for passwords of their Facebook accounts.
Personally I think this is far too into my private bubble and a total violation of my privacy. I wouldn’t want to work for a company that would want to peek into my private conversations, what I am commenting on and what my friends are posting about. If a company really wanted to know me personally, perhaps… just talk to me? Get to know me? Like face to face like humans should?
What are everyones thoughts on this?
