Checking candidates out on the web

[Sonya P]

Hi fellow HR Buzzers

Just wondering if and how people are using the web to check out applicants for jobs?

It would be interesting to hear about everyone's experiences and views on this growing phenomenon.

Sonya

[mspecht]

Sonya,

This depends on what you want to find out :-). The best form of background checking is still through specialised providers. However depending on the industry you are working in as using the web to supplement background check ingis a good idea, technology for example.

A word of caution, you need to understand the site that you are checking, for example a MySpace page is personal, yes public, but personal all the same. Just because the job applicant got drunk at Schoolies 4 years ago when they were 18 does not mean they will be a poor employee at 22. In fact just cause they got drunk on the Friday before the interview doesn't either.

If reviewing someones blog you need to assess is it personal or professional. Personal ignore it, as with MySpace, FaceBook etc. Professional have a look you will get a very candid and open perspective of the candidate and not everything will be to your liking, but it never is. With a professional blog, double check the quality of the technical content, who is commenting, review Technorati are they influential?

Their LinkedIn page is a good source of validating what they have done and who they know, it should match their paper CV, to a point.

You will also find if they have been quoted in mainstream media, presented at conferences or written professional articles.

Another thought, you can't discriminate due to gender, race etc are we going to see discrimination cases over people not being hired for their MySpace page? Actually I seem to remember that this has already happened, before go do some research. ;-)

Hope this helps and I am not preaching to the choir!

[DaveG]

I can see this becoming a big issue. While it is very tempting to 'check someone out' on the Web, it is very difficult not to be influenced by what you find, either positively or negatively.

Furthermore, while some people may be horrified at what may exist about them on the web, it is just as easy for a con artists to fabricate a reputation on the web. As the employer or recruiter it is very difficult to determine what you are seeing is (a) about the same person, or (b) factual.

Michael, you mentioned LinkedIn as a more reliable source, but is it really? I have people linked to me whom I have never met and don't know me at all, simply because they sent me an invite and I accepted it because I thought they might be interesting to get to know. It's pretty easy for people to give each other recommendations. In fact you could presumably create a whole bunch of completely fictitious profiles on LinkedIn.

Possibly a good bit of advice for potential job seekers would be to Google themselves and see what's out there. Better to be fully aware about what a potential employer might find.

The problem is, you might never even get to interview stage because the employer has found something they don't like on the web associated with a person with your name!

[Moz]

A lot of LinkedIn users seem to be in a competition to see who can get the most connections. There is virtually no validation of information on LinkedIn. Personally I find it a waste of time.

[cam]

I agree with mspecht that personal pages like myspace are irrelevant, I know someone whose myspace page gives the image of a crazy party animal (which he is) but he is also an top student doing a masters of advertising.

Originally Posted by Moz

A lot of LinkedIn users seem to be in a competition to see who can get the most connections. There is virtually no validation of information on LinkedIn. Personally I find it a waste of time.

This sounds very similar to the way web entrepreneurs would use 'link farms' that would boost their search rankings. Of course Google came along and was able to identify and punish (reduce search ranking) anyone who was doing this.

I'd love to say that I think this would correlate to what might happen with LinkedIn or the whole 'this is who I am' thing but any information that may exist about a person on the Internet is very questionable. When it comes to people you really need to interact with them becuase you can sus out a person quite easily when talking to them as opposed to reading about them.

I think I might go and google myself now.

[Renee Muir]

I recently recruited for a Marketing Coordinator and I did the straight up Google, Myspace and Facebook searches. I think it is an interesting exercise and a FYI tool...but that's it.

If anything, I liked it because I could see actual pieces of writing eg. media releases by the candidates that made it to the web before they came in for the interview. So I had a solid idea of the quality of their work...something that is completely subjective otherwise.

As for the pics of seeing whether they got drunk on the weekend - personally, I would look but it wouldn't influence decision-making.

I can think of much better methods of taking a closer look at candidates than googling them eg. psych testing.

Renee Muir