Social networking websites and your professional life

All the time we hear about how employers are investigating your social networking profile and using it to evaluate your suitability for a job you applied for. A recent article by the Guardian (see here) warns teachers not to accept students as friends on facebook as it can be used against them.

It's not fair, that's my private life, it should be separate from my professional life?

Life isn't fair. Like it or not, your social networking profile is an incredibly good way of assessing what type of person you are. You can look at how someone communicates and behaves with their friends, what their interests are and a whole lot about their personality. When you are employed by a company, you represent them inside and outside of your employment hours, and it is for this reason that your future bosses will want to make sure you're not a muppet in your personal time.

When you represent a school, civil service or similar organisation, how you behave out of hours is especially important. Antics can be capitalised on by journalists, rival organisations or your students and can damage the reputation and trust which the public and/or your clients place in the organisation which employs you.

It's still not fair, that's my private life, it should be seperate from my professional life?

Well, if you feel that strongly about it, just make your facebook (or equivilent social networking website) profile private. If you do this, people you don't know can not just snoop without being your friend!