Recruitment consultant jobs and social networking

It would seem that this is set to continue with the younger generation with sites like bebo being a 'mandatory' part of teenage life to keep in contact and share experiences over cyberspace.

Job seekers should be weary of these social networking sites for a number of good reasons, and in particular the fact that many potential employers and certainly recruitment consultants are routinely referring to social networking sites to research candidates before they are employed. There was a high profile case on the news this year were Cambridge students were found guilty of breaking college rules and the proof was found with evidence posted on Myspace.

The individuals concerned tried to claim that this was an invasion of there human rights, but unfortunately they had effectively posted the information in the public domain. You could liken it to posting information which could be bad for you on a visible and highly public advertising board...but then again, and advertising board can be removed...and can't be seen by anyone 'all' over the world!

Deleting file from view on a computer is, of course, easy to do. Removing it completely from a hard drive is almost impossible. This is great news if you're down a PC shop thinking you've deleted you holiday photos, not so good if you are trying to remove something you never want anyone to see again. Consider the situation when files having been shared across many PCs all over the internet, at this point, these files are out there on hard drives all over the place and they're here to stay and there's nothing you can do about.

Returning to your search for jobs. The problem with social networking is that many people are using them as teenagers or students with, lets face it, not too many cares in the world. That day you did twenty naked star jumps on Brighton peer for charity seemed like a great idea at the time as a student, students do that sort of crazy stuff. The problem is, your mate filmed it on his mobile phone and it's now gaining 10,000 hits a day on U-tube with you're name against it, you're famous! Ten years on you've applied for a new job and you're at interview in the board room where your prospective employer's senior management team have just done an internet search on you before you arrive....! It's like your worst tattoo, but it won't even fade over time.  I would imagine soon that it's a standard task of a recruitment consultant to try and find 'social' evidence on the net for new candidates.

The moral is, if you're using a social networking site, don't put anything on there that might drop you in it at a later date, once it's there, you'll never escape it!