Social Networking Irony

A thought has just occurred to me about all the messages I’m getting at the moment from lecturers about online presence and it’s importance in future employment.

I will, for the rest of my life, have to monitor and sensor all the photo's, messages and videos that are posted anywhere on the internet.

I will have to do this in fear of them been seen by potential employers who Google my name to find out a little more about me. Although I personally have nothing to hide from my friends and family if the photo's that are commonly found on Facebook were to fall under the gaze of an employer they would dismiss me quicker than you can say "drunken bum".

Admittedly many of the photos featured on my Facebook are of nights out where I will have had a drink or two (or three) so I’m shooting myself in the foot a little. However when I was deleting a couple of pictures today I had a revelation about the whole situation. It goes like this:

In their quest to find out more about who we really are employers are looking into sites that expose more about our personal lives than CV's and application forms could ever achieve. In doing so they force us, as potential employees, to be careful about what we reveal about ourselves online. Ironically though, the necessity to suppress and sensor what we blog, post and tweet actually creates a less accurate profile of our personality and character for the potential employer to look at.

This may sound like a dig at HR managers but it is not intended as such. It is merely an observation that if you go looking for the truth about a total stranger’s personality you should take note of all their characteristics and look further than the profile picture of “My birthday night out last Wednesday” if you want to find the real “Joe Bloggs”.