Irina S
Executive and Technical Recruiter, Grand Master Sourcer Irina@braingainrecruiting.com http://twitter.com/braingain
Would hiring managers and HR want to see a list of candidate's online profiles along with the resume?
Would hiring managers and HR want to see a list of candidate's online profiles along with the resume?
It is possible these days to do this either by hand using online searches or by utilizing available tools (such as ResumeGrabber from eGrabber and other profile search tools).
What's your take on it?
See an example of a link collection at my post under "Best Practices" at the link below (paste into your browser):
http://booleanstrings.wordpress.com/best-practices/
Clarification added 7 months ago:
I have been Googling candidates for a long time now (starting at the time when I was a hiring manager). However this thought of standardizing submission of several online profiles along with a resume in its current form is new and I think it's a great idea. It has been suggest to me by Chandra Bodapati of eGrabber.
Answers (25)
I'd like to add the link to the original post and a couple of related links.
Links:
- http://www.ere.net/2009/04/15/will-resumes-become-obsolete/
- http://booleanstrings.wordpress.com/best-practices/
Clarification added 7 months ago:
I have added a link to today's article by Irina published on ERE: "Will Resumes Become Obsolete?"
Irune I
Senior Web Developer at CBS Interactive
Best Answers in: E-Commerce (2), Web Development (2), Using LinkedIn (2)
I know that I google any candidate whose CV I'm asked to check, even if I am not on HR (just do some technical reviews). The presence on the Internet of somebody working on the web business should be part of their qualifications. Anybody who makes this easier earns points with me. I don't really like when agencies go the opposite way and hide the name of the applicant on the resumes, I feel like they're not trusting the client with not going against their agreement to only hire that person through the agency.
Dawn B
Director, Business Development & Human Resources
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I'm in the job market myself now and my CV has all the listing of my online profiles established in LinkedIn, FaceBook, MySpace, etc., (created specifically for business related or career opportunity 'hits' on query words. It has astronomically increased the number of views on my LinkedIn profile as well as other unmeasurable business profiles I have out on the web.
I use these to impress upon any interested, future employer how involved I am within my community and my trade arena for organizations.
I'm not, and have never been, impressed with Resume Grabber or Resume distribution tools - unless they can get directly and automatically dumped into my resume database (ATS) so I don't have to deal with them until I perform a search query on key skill words.
Here's my listing of profiles:
• AFCEA Corporate membership
• Beta Sigma Phi National and local member
• FaceBook: http://profile/to/dawnboyer/
• FriendFeed: http://friendfeed.com/dawnboyer
• HR.com http://hr.com/members/Dawn.Boyer
• Ki-Work: http://ki-work.com/ki-profile/dawnboyer
• LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/dawnboyer
• MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/dawn_d_boyer
• NAACP Member since 2005
• Networkers United Worldwide: http://nuworldwide.com
• PeerPower: http://peerpower.com/pub/Dawn.Boyer
• RecruiterEarth: http://recruiterearth.com/profile/DawnBoyer
• RYZE: http://www.ryze.com/go/DawnBoyer
• SHRM Society for Human Resources Managers (local & national)
• TalentBar: http://www.talenbar.com/profile/DawnBoyer
• Tidewater Government Industry Council - TASC
• Toastmasters (past President, Secretary, and Treasurer)
• UNYK: http://www.unyk.com/en/id/119011455
• Xing: http://www.xing.com/profile/Dawn_Boyer4
Angela T
Award winning, experienced executive and change agent with background in all aspects of business
I think you can learn a great deal from someone's on-line profile. Are they detail oriented? Is everything on the profile grammatically correct? Do they care enough about their "entire" appearance to the outside world, and consequently YOUR company if you choose to hire them? Is their profile complete, or did they do a half-hearted job with it? How does that impact the way you think about the kind of job they'll do for you, or more importantly, your clients?
As in most cases, no single tool should be used standalone, and on-line profiles get you one step closer to gaining a complete picture of the candidate.
Tyler B
Reporting analyst
Best Answers in: Staffing and Recruiting (5), Employment and Labor Law (1), Internet Marketing (1), Viral Marketing (1), Professional Networking (1), Using LinkedIn (1)
A comment on Irune's answer:
A lot of the time, client companies engage in unethical behavior and firms that operate on the basis on pay-per-hire often get denied fees from it. If a firm has this in place, it's to prevent this from happening as a general policy, and shouldn't be taken as a lack of trust.
Angela C
Book author, Multimedia Journalist, Community Manager, UGC Expert and Public Speaker
I am definitely interested in this type of information and it is increasingly important for everyone to understand the ramifications of their online presence. I am also interested in photos. Tagged photos are going to contribute to the demise of many careers in the future, if they are ever able to get off the ground in the first place. You cannot control who is tagging you in photos on Facebook or any other social media platforms for that matter. Our image is more important than it's ever been and again, I absolutely have interest in this kind of information.
Thomas D
Vice President and Enterprise CIO at Blue Cross of Northeastern Pa
Best Answers in: Wireless (2)
Our HR area doesn't request them but I do google any new candidate that is being considered for a high level position. I will also search LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social networking sites for activity.
Rachel P
Creative Director at The Balagan Group
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HI Irina,
we check all possible new employees out on facebook, myspace etc just to see "who we're really getting"
Most candidates are aware that their name will be searched when they are applying for a high-profile position with a company. That being said, it is important for people intent on moving up the career ladder to keep an eye on their online content.
Depending on the position, I think that it would be a reasonable expectation to ask the applicant directly if they are active in an online space.
Dominique M
Recruitment Officer at Odyssey Financial Technologies
Best Answers in: Staffing and Recruiting (1), Starting Up (1)
personally use http://www.123people.com/ handle check on many social network, Google and more with only one query. Simple and Efficient.
So, let us look at a candidate's MySpace and Facebook profiles to see if they are the right person for the job. What criteria shall be used to judge? What if the candidate listens to hip hop or is a member of GLAAD or perhaps of the NRA or maybe has a profile pic with a beer in their hand? Shall an condescending eye be turned on the candidate and they be removed from consideration? There is a process in place to find out if the candidate is right for the position - interviews, reference checks, and criminal background checks.
If you are getting to the point where you need to look at the candidate's Facebook profile, you are no longer a recruiter. You are a voyeur.
The Internet and Web 2.0 technologies are very interesting to all of us, including recruiters and hiring managers, and given the fact that they are such a readily available resource that easily captures our attention, they are very valuable assets. Like any data that we use to make our daily decisions, it should be used to help empower us to work more efficiently.
That being said, a job seeker should wisely take this information to empower him/herself to understand that the technologies can actually use the positive aspects of Web 2.0 to strengthen his/her personal brand. Then, the curiosity-seeking recruiter and/or hiring manager learns impressive and thought-provoking information about the job seeker potentially prompting contact. To learn more, check out Dan Schawbel's new book, "Me 2.0" about personal branding and career success.
Links:
John H
Director of Marketing and Community Relations at Episcopal Community Services and the Hunger Relief Network
Best Answers in: Staffing and Recruiting (5), Job Search (1), Business Plans (1)
To me, the answer to this is the same as the answer to whether membership in a particular organization should be included on your resume. Is that information applicable to the position for which you are applying?
For example, if the position you are applying for is in social marketing (or some other aspect of internet/integrated marketing), absolutely. In this case, the candidate supplying their online presence is roughly the same as a graphic artist supplying a prospective employer with a portfolio of their work.
However, if I am applying for a job as a Supply Chain Manager, then such online profiles as Facebook and MySpace are irrelevant. Supplying this information in this case would be a little like including the name of my church on my resume, or including my next door neighbor who knows nothing about supply chain or how I perform my job as one of my professional references.
Everyone in this industry should be careful about our practices in this area. What is legal, and what is ethical? The legal ramifications are largely untested. If something is out-of-bounds for discussion during an interview, then why would we think it is perfectly ethical to get that same information from a social profile online?
As a recruiter, if I receive a resume (and I still do sometimes) that includes the candidates birthdate, or that they are married, or that they have three children, or that they belong to the Beth Shalom Synagogue -- I politely tell them that this information has no business on their resume and for them to please resubmit a new resume to me with this information deleted. It seems to me that if someone appended a list of their online profiles as part of their resume, the ethical thing to do would be to follow this same practice -- unless that information was applicable as part of their professional credentials.
Try cvgadget.com
search all the 'job search' sites you want. But facebook? Now I have to worry about you seeing that I play certain games.....Not fair.....Facebook for a few minutes a day is a relaxation for me from the rigors of unsuccessful job searching.
Josh C
General Manager at Web Industries; Itinerant Writer; and Decent Little League Coach
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I'm always curious to see various profiles of a person....
Josh.
Amber M
Business Development Manager/HR Generalist, and Sr. Recruiter: Signature Staff Resources, LLC
Best Answers in: Staffing and Recruiting (4), Job Search (1), Public Relations (1)
There have many great posts...I noticed ALOT of companies and hiring managers who perform background and character searches on potential employees through social networks. I hope you are all getting the potential employee's permission for this and making available to them a copy of what you have found. BE AWARE: If your candidate finds out you are doing this without their consent you can very well be sued!.
I perform the very same checks myself, but make the candidates aware that I am going to do it. If there is anything questionable (ex: web developer developing porn sites on the side...) I print off what I find and present it to them. Although I only have to provide a copy of their rights to the information I provide them the specific information that went against our policies and procedures.
As far as the resume grabber....I am not a fan of it. I am a fan of making things easier for my clients though and prefer to offer more specific and tailored services. After all, that is why my clients come to me. If the hiring managers had the time to search for their own employees there would be less of "ME" to contend with.
Links:
A hiring manager will ALWAYS search for the candidate on Google. They will then find a large number of links that they will randomly investigate. These will result in either a positive or negative result. As gatekeepers, hiring managers are always searching for ANY reason to say no. No is then no!
Everyone needs to look after their brand image and their personal profiles. Check out my links to see how I approach the subject...
Of course if you supply some additional positive information the manager might look at it. It is however, essential that the overall first forty or so items in Google are clean, related and positive.
Links:
Andi E also suggests these experts on this topic:
Gerry W
RN BSN CPHIMS ☆ Epic Certified ☆ Open Networker ☆ 5900+ 1stº Contacts
Best Answers in: Using LinkedIn (1)
Only a very naive job prospect would assume that headhunters, HR staff, and hiring managers are not going to look. In fact, one regular stop for me on LI now is to see who's been looking at my profile.
I work for a medium-sized health care consulting firm. This week, I had one of our competitors checking me out. The competitor, interestingly enough, is contracted to the same client as the firm I'm with. Are they stealing recruits? Are they gauging the weaknesses of their competitors? Who knows? What I know, is that they weren't clever enough to cover their tracks!
I'm starting to spend at least as much time on my online "presence" as I do on my printed resume. That being said, there's only so much you can do. One indiscrete rant in public online forum somewhere can undo all the care and craftsmanship you have put into online CV. I guess the lesson is that you always have to be on your best behavior online, as well as off!
It is standard practice to hit the internet and find out the footprint of all new employees hired at our company, especially into the technical fields. Candidates don't always tell you everything (good and bad) that is in their background and it's good to see what the "world" thinks of them and what they've been doing.
I think when it comes to recruiting there are so many best practices that are involved with this. I think the question that needs to be asked is will it help them identify the best possible candidate for that position? They don't have a lot of time to be swifting through a mountain of resumes and online profiles as well.
Greg D
SVP Sales, Sales Performance Advisors. Creating Quality Sales Cultures
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As one who has interviewed thousands and hired hundreds I would say that I would prefer that someone does a search and informs me of any serious issues that they found. However I would not want to see those profiles unless they were uniquely relevent to the job opening.
Links:
Sure, resumes get dated and candidates are moving targets!
I would always Google them.
Here you can often see, if they have participated in any sport activities, which tells me a lot about their winner-mentality.
Also I look at their LinkedIn profile as well as their Facebook profile (if any).
At LinkedIn I can see, how they act professionally on the Internet.
At Facebook I can only see some information, but they might know somebody, that I know, and then its beginning to be really interesting.
As one of your "targets" in question, I'd like to say that there are a LOT of things that I don't put on my on line profile simply because... I LIKE MY PRIVACY!
So many of these sites are *incredibly* invasive into my life - Facebook is a real pet peeve of mine. For that reason, I tend not to post photos of myself or a lot of information about myself. I find that the default profiles are IDEAL for identity theft and so I don't fill most of them in.
I'm in Network Security. If I can't secure my *own* identity, how good am I going to be at securing your companies millions of dollars in assets?
Just my 2 cents,
Jimi Thompson, CISSP
