Before the advent of the Internet and its growing array of social gathering Web sites, employers would likely turn to an outside agency to perform a background check on a potential employee, particularly if the position to be filled was a sensitive one. Thanks to people like Larry Page and Sergey Brin (founders of Google) you don”™t have to look far to find out what anyone has been up to.
Â
You need only “google” their name or visit Facebook, My Space or You Tube to see if that potential hire has the kind of mettle you are looking for in your organization.
Tom Krieglstein of Illinois, co-founder of Swiftkick.com, gave Rockland Community College staff and students on March 11 a lesson in how to use Web sites like Facebook to their potential advantage.
He warned of the disadvantages of putting inappropriate material in your profile. “When you leave a digital footprint, it remains there forever,” said Krieglstein. “Pictures may be deleted, but they are out there in cyberspace. Basically, whatever you post on the Internet remains on there in some way, shape or form.”
Krieglstein and his Swiftkick partner, New Yorker Kevin Prentiss, met online and tour the country to clue in educators and students about the potentials and the pitfalls of creating an online profile.
According to Krieglstein, 60 percent of employers search Google when checking applicants. In today”™s world, you don”™t need to hire a detective to follow the digital footprints left behind ”“ just follow the links.
Swiftkick”™s co-creator says Facebook is preferred by college students because it is “more professional, and is a very creative way to market your talents.” One student earns over $100,000 a year creating videos, which is part of his Facebook profile. “He may make more money than the company potentially trying to recruit him.”
Krieglstein says Facebook”™s creator, Mark Zuckerberg, who recently hired Sheryl Sandberg away from Google to help him grow his company, plans to expand Facebook”™s profiles to include professionals as a marketing tool.
Â
Sites like My Space and Facebook can help people keep in touch and create a general dialogue, Krieglstein told educators at the RCC forum. He rebuffed the notion of outlawing networking sites on college campuses, saying that students will find a way to get online whether it is permitted by the school or not. Coastal Community College in Georgia tried to implement the ban, only to find out students were going underground to get on line. “The goal is to treat behavior and technology separately,” said Krieglstein. “It cost Coastal (Community College) so much money to hire an outside IT person to continually block sites that the policy became a financial burden, rather than a blessing, and was eventually dropped. It did not prove to be the deterrent they hoped it would be. It only challenged students to become more creative to get on line.”
Krieglstein, a graduate of Aurora University in Illinois, says Facebook is the preferred site of college students, while My Space attracts high schoolers and over 30”™s to its social network. The average age of a Facebook user is 24, while My Space”™s average age is 33. Facebook has 60 million subscribers, while Rupert Murdoch”™s new acquisition, Facebook, boasts 200 million users. Said Krieglestein, “College students prefer Facebook because it is a simple log-in. My Space is loaded with advertising, which makes it a great marketing tool and therefore, highly attractive to News Corp.”
Despite advances in technology ”“ one educator in the audience told peers he will be able to chat with his wife “face to face live” via the Internet while he is away in Europe this summer ”“ Krieglstein says there is nothing that can replace “ real person-to-person contact. Facebook is a great way to keep connected with friends and to meet new students who are looking for mentors.”
In the final analysis, despite the rapidly evolving technology that allows face-to-face conference calls from one continent to the other, there is nothing like an actual “face-to-face meeting with a person,” said Krieglberg. Body language, eye contact and personality are qualities that do not leave a digital footprint but a lasting impression. “In the end, we are still very much human, and human contact is an absolute requirement.”
