<p>A CNN story to share with your kids. I actually know someone who lost her job due to Myspace posts in which she complained about her job. Her employers already were looking askance at her because of her weak work ethic, but when they saw her Myspace site, in which she said that she hated her job, her employers found a way to end her employment, telling her they lacked the funds to keep her.</p>
<p>"Jeff Krakauer, human resources director for the legal services company Juriscape in Pasadena, California, says he recently began looking at social-networking profiles – especially for candidates for whom he’s “on the fence…”</p>
<p>Hearing more stories like those prompted career counselors at the University of Dayton to survey employers in their database about their use of Facebook. They found that 42 percent of the 326 who responded said they would consider factoring a Facebook profile into their hiring decisions. Some of those employers also said they’d already rescinded offers because of things they’d discovered online.</p>
<p>“I do think it’s an invasion of privacy,” says Melissa Bush, a business major at the University of Dayton. “But when you think about it, anything you post online is open season.”</p>
<p>When she interviewed for an internship last summer, her interviewer told her upfront that they’d be checking her Facebook profile. She didn’t worry because she’s careful about what she posts – but lately, she’s been deleting messages from friends that she deems inappropriate.</p>
<p>“If you don’t want people to read it, don’t post it,” Bush says. “If you don’t want people to see a video, don’t post it.”</p>
<p>I believe the default mode for Facebook requires that you “friend” someone in order for your webpage to be viewable. I don’t think this is the case for Myspace, although you can choose to make access by invitation only. (Please correct me if I am wrong - I monitor my kids Myspace pages but can’t access their Facebook pages. I could if I ask their permission, but I have elected not to - so far.) If this is the case, employers would have to require access to Facebook profiles as a condition of employment or obtain access surreptitiously. I suppose if it worked for HP…</p>
<p>This is true. Facebook is by invitation. Someone can ‘friend’ you, and if you accept, then only can they view your facebook. As for Myspace, most kids seem to keep it open, which is not smart at all. There is an option to have it private.</p>
<p>I know that young folk use it as a means of keeping in touch with friends. But, jeez, is there no limit to what you will share with others?</p>
<p>I think that you may be able to get into even “friends only” Myspace sites through using the “cached” button of Google. I bet there also are ways that savvy folks can get into Facebook</p>
<p>One of the two stunning moments in my younger (15) son’s character development was the day he told me that he’d removed everyone from his Myspace friends list that he didn’t know personally “in the real world” and set his page to private. He’s my hero. (The other was when he had me turn off text messaging on his cell phone because, “Dad, I have a problem with text messaging and I don’t know how to deal with it. Please have it disconnected.”) I don’t spend much time worrying about son #2.</p>
<p>At least he’ll never have Myspace used against him when he applies for a job.</p>
<p>You are right NSM. Obviously there are people smart enough to hack into any site. So, go about your Myspace postings as if your worst enemy was reading them.</p>
<p>I don’t read myspace and my daughter doesnt have one, but I have noticed that on livejournal for example, where you can make all your entries private if you want, all kids have to do is send something to the owner of the blog commenting on a post and they will be added to the private list.
Its not like kids are asking them for a resume or even ID ;)</p>
<p>Although Facebook is usually off-limits except to friends, the default option allows anyone from your network(s) to view your profile. I’ve heard of employers who had their interns (who are part of the same network as potential hire X) check out potential employees through Facebook. Same thing goes for interns. A friend of mine took everything off of his Facebook profile because his boss asked him to.</p>
<p>Oh, and things like the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine can access websites from the past, so things can surface five, ten years down the road. Not that I think employers would do that, of course.</p>
<p>Back in the “olden” days, when we graduated, Husband said that the way you could tell classmates were graduating and looking for jobs is because they cut off their ponytails.</p>