An employer wants to hire the best suited applicant for the job and a simple Google search can help in this process. So the most important thing an employee can do is to manage their online reputation and control what comes up when a someone searches for them online.

Companies are already subjectively assessing fit based on what isn’t on your resume. How you talk, how you interact with other people, your written correspondance, your personality in the interview… that’s all considered. If people were just what they are on their resume, there would be very few workplace issues. It is unrealistic to expect that from an employee. Subjective decision making is part of why the selection process is so difficult.

Job candidates are free to expose what ever they want about company management that’s publicly available but I don’t know exactly what that accomplishes? Wouldn’t a better way to stick it to the overly aggressive, social media background check company be to happily work for another company that doesn’t care (or cares minimally) about what’s online? You give one your talents and you deprive the other of them.

Does the corporation have the right to subjectively assess my fit based on things that are explicitly not in my resume and are explicitly part of my personal life? How does HR confirm that the “will robinson” that they searched for on google is the same WR that they are considering hiring? Where is ‘the line’ between appropriate behavior and in-appropriate behavior because these seem to be very subjective and gray.

Are you the exact person with your good friends that you are at work? Shouldn’t you be allowed to be a different person during your time-off? If you said something stupid 5 years ago, it could haunt you for the rest of your career – is that fair?

This is not a level playing field, there are many more workers out there than there are jobs. If I get dinged from a company, should I search every executive and board member’s online activities and make them public? Will they be fired for the same reasons I wasn’t hired?

There are a lot of big issues here and corporate America has already lost the trust of the people. Do you want to burn more bridges?

@Lisa – I guess I feel a little different about social networking than privacy in general. If I were to build a house that is made entirely of glass, how could I complain if someone is looking in at me from the street? Social networks are constructs of millions of people choosing to put their life out there.

@HR Leigh – Somebody mentions it down further but I think out expectations are always changing and they aren’t going to be the same from company to company. I don’t know if social networking has changed the practice of hiring cultural fits or not. It is a good discussion in and of itself.

@Monica – I was brushing on that point but you nailed it. I’ve had a little bit of discomfort with some of the things being posted on there from time to time but for the most part, it has been a good thing to reach people I wouldn’t normally reach. That being said, I don’t expect a ton from anything I don’t put much work into.

@Michael – I don’t even know if it is a bad thing all of the time. Sometimes the social networking check makes you feel more at ease with the decision and can lead to a better bargaining position for the employee.

@Nancy – It’s difficult to prove anything like that anyway unless it is some ridiculous offense. Not saying that there isn’t risk (there is risk in any employment action), but it seems like the warnings about impending doom go a bit overboard. And you’re right, employers that come down to harshly on social networking can lose talent too.

@HR Editor – Be yourself, just don’t be YOUR self if you are a drunk, a slob or an a-hole, right? People can laugh at that all they want but if you are uploading something, maybe think twice about the consequences. We all have a choice.

@Will – The cynic in me understands what you’re saying but how can you blame them for access what everyone else can access too? If you hired someone who said stupid things on twitter or on their blog, they become a liability and headache for the people that hire them. The great equalizer is that people are starting to figure out how to use social media to research companies. When they find out they aren’t good people, they move on (even in this environment). The street goes two ways.

I don’t think it is a matter of going squeaky clean or going anonymous. In an ideal world, it would be about both parties being authentic and finding the best mutual fit. Right now, it is employee and employer beware. If it is on the internet, it is fair game.

You know who you will get – sheep and boring people with no imagination. If that’s what you are looking for – great, but I think it is another step in the wrong direction. I know that Social Media will not go away (I don’t even think it is social media in this context, but any/ all online activities) but if companies are basically going to use anything you say against you and feel ‘justified’ since it is on the internet, what is next? Following people around?

While this may seem hyperbolic, I refuse to accept that the American worker will suddenly either become ‘squeeky clean’ or ‘anonymous’ but that is where corporate America seems to be pushing it.

We will see if Brazen can somehow translate Penelopies following into a real social network. I am very skeptical.