What can we find on you ?!?

Phone rings...


HH: Hey Chermaine, how are you? Glad to have you on the team and thanks by the way for completing the salary negotiations for me.

ME: Not to shabby thanks. Am sure the clients will keep me on my toes. So did she accept the offer?

HH: Yes she did. She was agreeable to your final package. Was getting a little worried about her line of questioning but am guessing the Malaysian connection worked.

ME: Excellent! JO will be ecstatic that we've just increased our diversity figures

(note: Malaysians are considered an under-represented group and with the recent call by RBZ to increase female representation to 50% we scored a double whammy on this recruitment. Chinese Malaysian female for a Senior Managerial position. JJ would be proud of me ;) *inside joke*)

HH: Her references came back pretty solid too. And her facebook profile was clean.

(internal thought: WFT is he on about??)

ME: What do you mean her facebook profile?

HH: Yeah, don't you know a few of us have started doing google checks on our candidates and looking especially into sites like facebook, myspace and the likes.

(facial expression: one of utter disbelief!)

ME: U're kidding me right?

HH: Nope

ME: Hhmmm I'm not sure i'm comfortable with this but let's talk more when i get back to the office.

HH: Sure, will be submitting the paperwork tomorrow for processing. Bye now.

ME: Great. Bye

Needless to say that brief yet enlightening conversation left a bad after taste. Dammit but do we not already do a pretty bang-up & extensive background check on the candidates we hire? From credit history, to verification of education (so if u say u've a MBA/PhD u bloody well make sure u have it), to the usual criminal check and of course reference checks. We, the HR Advisors & Recruiters, were now taking it upon ourselves to scour the internet for personal behaviors on display.

Sure, I'm always telling my nephews and nieces to be cautious about what they post on their profile and to make sure that they have it protected in every which way possible. Especially in landing that first plum job. I know recruiters are looking. There's plenty of stories out there to debunk that this is all just hearsay. But come now, does a photo or two of someone drunk and dancing on a bartop or standing in costume (I believe it was a pirate costume) with a cocktail in hand deserve his/her break in life to be yanked away? What happened to having a happy medium to work/life balance. So it's fine it you're out helping out in the soup kitchens and/or volunteering with Habit for Humanity, but by jove you're doomed if you're having a drink and some laughs with friends or hey maybe dancing with another female cause all of a sudden your moral is going to be quizzed. For crying out loud!!!

Holy cow...paralyzing moment...maybe I should go google ME up and see what pops up...hhmmm, coz I know without a doubt there is a photo of me dancing on a couch in some club, several photos of me looking half dazed from waaayy to much alcohol and ... err ok that one has come down already for other reasons :) and some pretty funky comments Bottom line, I honestly don't care. In fact if you were to come to my office there's a framed photo of me slurping away on some blue concoction. Hell, if i'm going to pass over recruiting someone, it's going to be for reasons other than a photo or a lame comment!