Googling job candidates

I received an email from a friend who works for a company as there HR Person.
She sent me a short clip of a blog from Punk Rock HR; post Interviews, Unemployment, and the Cloud.
Here is a small piece of the blog:

In my opinion, Human Resources shouldn’t be checking anyone out via Google or any other website. I’ve said this before: a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and the internet is neither reliable nor valid. You never know if the information is accurate. Also, f–k anyone from Human Resources or legal who wants to bring the holier-than-thou approach to the hiring process. You’re not perfect. Neither are your candidates.
That being said, many HR people are using Google, Facebook, and MySpace to check up on you. They might use Twitter. Some will review your LinkedIn profile.

at the end of the blog clip she asked, "Mike what do you think of this?"

here is my response;
This post comes from Laurie Ruettimann of the blog "Punk Rock HR"
I read her blog and my blog is listed under her blog roll http://punkrockhr.com/prhr-blogroll/
She has many readers - Additionally you can tell how popular a blog is by its comments - and she has fans who write comments!

I like her honest and straight forward approach - with that I agree with what most of the post says - especially "don’t work for a company that is more concerned about your online consumption habits than your knowledge, skills, and abilities."

Also that one has to be mindful that once it is on the web it is out there! in a philosophy class we were discussing sexting and the moral / ethical area of sexting (sexting is sending dirty pictures to people over your phone) once it is out there you no longer own it.
Once you use facebook - twitter - myspace - LinkedIn they can do whatever they wish with your content.

I compare it to working with an organization - once you are employed part of your pay is giving up some of your freedoms and autonomy for the organization - your values and the organizations may not align - and once that organization is paying you may have to widen your values.

Back to internet - once you put a photo on facebook and post something to the internet it is in the "Cloud" it may be used for any reason - they now own the rights to your photo and content - and once you agree to use their platform you are giving up some of your rights and autonomy for the use of their bandwidth and platform.

All of this is just a tool - and should only be used as a tool that is nuanced.

So - what do you think?



-Michael Cardus is the founder of Create-Learning-Team Building, an experiential based training and development consulting organization, as well as a blogger for TeamBuilding NY. Mike specializes in team development and leadership development consulting and training, creating team-building programs that retain talented staff members, increase production and effectiveness of your team. He lives in Buffalo, NY, and travels to you to serve your team-building and leadership training needs, wherever and whenever fits your schedule.