Resume, references, & Facebook account passwords
Another reason to think twice before posting something online – it could cost you your job or the prospect of getting a new job. Employers have long been checking into candidates lives online on sites like Myspace and Facebook but some are starting to go beyond that. some companies are not just glancing at a person’s social networking profiles and instead asking to log in as the user to have a look around. Sources say employers are increasingly asking candidates to give up their social media account passwords during interviews so the potential employer can peer into private pages and see if the person at the interview matches the person online.
This was the case during a recent job interview in Seattle, where Justin Bassett was astonished when the interviewer asked him to hand over his Facebook username and password right in the interview. Bassett refused and withdrew his application, saying he didn’t want to work for a company that would ask for such personal information. Depending on the job market, some candidates cannot afford to say no when confronted with the same question.
It has become common for managers to review publically available Facebook profiles, Twitter accounts and other sites to learn more about job candidates. But many users, especially on Facebook, have their profiles set to private, making them available only to selected people or networks.
Needless to say this kind of activity on the behalf of employers has caused a huge amount of debate concerning privacy &issues, cival rights and whether a person’s private time is in fact “private”. Questions have been raised about the legality of the practice, which is also the focus of some proposed legislation that would forbid public agencies from asking for access to social networks.
Read the full story on boston.com