How social media can ruin your chances

[Evo]

As always, you should be careful of what you post online. This is a good article about how an increasing number of colleges as well as employers are searching social media of students and prospective employees.

They loved your GPA, then they saw your tweets.

As certain high school seniors work meticulously this month to finish their early applications to colleges, some may not realize that comments they casually make online could negatively affect their prospects. In fact, new research from Kaplan Test Prep, the service owned by the Washington Post Company, suggests that online scrutiny of college hopefuls is growing.

“Students’ social media and digital footprint can sometimes play a role in the admissions process,” says Christine Brown, the executive director of K-12 and college prep programs at Kaplan Test Prep.

In the business realm, employers now vet the online reputations of job candidates as a matter of course.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/b...w-your-tweets.html?partner=yahoofinance&_r=1&

 

[Turion]

This probably will make me sound like a bad person but here it is: good.

It increases my chances of getting into a good college. :)

 

[Pythagorean]

Good thing my social media posts consist of science news and offspring pictures. My children have been known to hypnotize employers.

 

[OmCheeto]

Good thing my social media posts consist of science news and offspring pictures. My children have been known to hypnotize employers.

Children? It seemed like only the other day...

It appears I've missed some news.

Hey! Someone's going to be 4 in a few days.

ps. Thank you for making babies Pyth. The thought of Idiocracy really creeped me out.

pps. Thank god I'm not worried about getting a job, and have been wise enough not to blurt out what I really think of my bosses over the last few years. Though, I understand what they are doing now, having been one. It all makes sense now.

My perception of my bosses...

My perception of me at work...

What my friends are all doing whilst I sit here on the internets...​

 

[Borek]

This probably will make me sound like a bad person but here it is: good.

It increases my chances of getting into a good college. :)

PF is a social media too, and this particular comment won't get you many points, at least not in my eyes.

 

[Choppy]

A few weeks ago someone resurrected a thread I'd responded to about 10 years ago in another forum I frequent and it got me to thinking... just about everything you put out there on the internet has at least the potential to become a permanent record.

I have young children now, but I'm sure at some point if they really want to, they'll be able to look up things I've written about over the course of my life. I'm not personally too worried about this since I've always made an effort to keep my online presence at least somewhat professional - even when that presence is semi-anonymous.

I can imagine though, that this isn't the case for everyone.

More and more of our data is going online these days. I saw a commercial for Google's Chromebook the other day - a laptop-ish thing that doesn't really run any software locally - it's just a portal to the net and all your applications and documents are stored "in the cloud" - or at least that's my understanding of it. So all you data is just going to be "out there."

As online presence increases, it's bound to make past mistakes that people have made, that people have learned from and grown from, come back to haunt them.

For now, this idea that employers check out their potential hires' social media, is one that's seemed pretty obvious to me from the outset.

 

[OmCheeto]

I just hope the pictures that 500 people took of me at Mardi Gras 24 years ago don't get put online.

Good god...

This is why I can never run for public office.

 

[Curious3141]

I just hope the pictures that 500 people took of me at Mardi Gras 24 years ago don't get put online.

Good god...

This is why I can never run for public office.

Pubic Orifice on the other hand...

 

[Aero51]

I think it is getting ridiculous. "It" being the watchful eye of prospective employers and now Universities. It is as if we are not allowed to have lives of our own anymore. I'm sure some of these "big shots" who are paid to scan the internet and scrutinize candidates have had similar fun experiences in their youth. Really, who cares if I get wicked drunk every Friday night and go out and dance? How does that affect my ability to do my job Mon-Fri? Say I get into a political debate via a forum discussion. Do I have to put a disclaimer on my statements, noting their non-affiliation with my employer? Here's a better question, what does the ideal candidate look like on a social network? Does he have a Tatoo of GE on his left shoulder? Does he sport IBM Polo's in all his pictures? Is he always low key and relatively uneventful?

Bottom line: I think this should be illegal. Surveillance stops when you are off the clock unless you are a high profile employee. For Universities, I think this is going to breed a very dishonest and superficial (phony might be a better word) mentality amongst students.

 

[OmCheeto]

Pubic Orifice on the other hand...

No Orificer, I was not drunken driven. And yes, I always wear my underwear backwards, on my head, whilst bicycling naked, on, a tricycle... (hic!)

 

[D H]

It is as if we are not allowed to have lives of our own anymore.

If you value your privacy you need to be a bit circumspect about your private life. Have your weekend extravaganza of drunkenness and debauchery, but keep it private. Don't post pictures from it on social media for the whole world to see with the hope of getting a boatload of likes. You are making what should be your private life public when you write about it on social media.

 

[ainster31]

PF is a social media too, and this particular comment won't get you many points, at least not in my eyes.

The difference is I'm under a pseudonym.

 

[Borek]

The difference is I'm under a pseudonym.

You are one of those that think anonymity allows them to say things they would not said in person? That's even worse.

I've heard your men’s hockey team took a home loss around Halloween, didn't they?

 

[Enigman]

Or at least that's what you think.

I've heard your men’s hockey team’s took a home loss lately, didn't they?

...
...
...
...
Oh...got it. Wing Chun movie (?)
...but if that's the case...it won't work for the employers/colleges
...
...
...
*mental blank*

 

[ainster31]

You are one of those that think anonymity allows them to say things they would not said in person? That's even worse.

It's not true anonymity. As you more than likely already know, the ISP knows exactly which IP address corresponds to which customer but this is not available for the public such as universities.

Yes, I do think pseudonymity gives the ability for people to say things that they would otherwise receive backlash in real life.

I've heard your men’s hockey team took a home loss around Halloween, didn't they?

You're referring to the Toronto Maple Leafs, right? I honestly don't follow sports but it's intriguing that you geolocated my IP.

 

[Evo]

You should be aware that there are ways that they can sometimes discover your aliases by linking to friends and other sites, there was an article that showed how one of the recruiters at a company easily did this.

Not to mention people that know your alias. A woman I know was fired when a "friend" of hers contacted her company to let them know she was ratting out their illegal practices in her blog and they gave her employer her alias and blog URL. A year later the company was involved in one of the largest scandals in the US for those illegal practices. She got the last laugh. But that is rare.

 

[Caveat]

lol obviosly nobody here has twitter because it gives you an option to make your tweets private@Aero51

 

[Borek]

You're referring to the Toronto Maple Leafs, right?

No.

But just because I probably know which school you attend doesn't mean I am going to let everyone know it for no reason, at least as long as you behave

 

[Evo]

lol obviosly nobody here has twitter because it gives you an option to make your tweets private


@Aero51

Yeah, that worked for Weiner.

 

[Caveat]

I, for one, welcome our new sentient robot mind-reading overlords who will know everything about everyone and our whole life will be exposed!

 

[OmCheeto]

No.

But just because I probably know which school you attend doesn't mean I am going to let everyone know it for no reason, at least as long as you behave

Hey! Tell everyone about me!

Oh wait... we're Facebook friends... you know everything...



It's all Gorbachev's fault: Glasnost...

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ps. Did you see the article on Facebook about the guy that nailed his scrotum to Red Square yesterday? As an artist, I can only imagine that it will improve his chances.

pps. Ouch!