Fake Friending

Apparently 50% of British employers reject job applicants because of what they've said on facebook. These employers employ people to become facebook friends with us and report back what we've been up to.

According to The Telegraph, a UK employer survey showed that 38% of employers had turned applicants away when their facebook page showed different experience to their cv. Other reasons included when someone was racist on facebook (13%) or referred to drugs (10%).

Excuse me for being very 1990's about this, but isn't this dodgy? I mean to google a name and check out a blog is one thing, but to pay someone to fake friend me and check out if I've talked about drugs on facebook? I don't think I'd want to be employed by someone who did that.

The way I see it, web 2.0 is many things. It's a career resource and an information source but it's also about socialising ie social media. People sit at home and skype or upload photos to facebook while watching tv rather than going to the pub.

Some of what we put on the net is inherently public, but the point of facebook is that it's personal - thus the word friend. To do this is like employing a private detective to follow me to the pub and then report back on how I behaved. Do employers do that too?

When I've been on selection panels, we had to declare any personal interest and disregard anything anyone had said outside the interview. We were meant to treat all applicants at face value, not be influenced by small town gossip. Not easy in a small town.

Web 2.0 ethics need to be addressed here.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/6968320/Half-of-employers-reject-potential-worker-after-look-at-Facebook-page.html