Leo S.
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Verified by
Sander D.
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Last updated: July 18, 2024 —
(0)
Despite the fact that Facebook has grown immensely both in size and popularity, there are still some things the social media giant needs to polish from a privacy point of view, whether it is in the field of virtual reality, online gaming or any other trending services. Still, for most of us, Facebook is just a social network where we voluntarily share information that, in almost all cases, should remain private. In other words, we hand out our most precious data on a silver plate, so basically Facebook knows more information about us than often feared government agencies themselves.
However, Facebook has a new feature on the horizon, with which the site clearly targets LinkedIn. At first, Jobs doesn’t sound like a bad idea at all: you can search for work opportunities and even apply thereto without having to leave the page. However, on the other hand there’s the aforementioned privacy issue: since Facebook is not known for handling sensitive data pretty well (or not forcing users to take privacy matters seriously), which makes that this whole idea may not play in favor for job applicants at all.
The main difference between Facebook and LinkedIn is obvious: the latter focuses entirely on business and people use it with the purpose of showcasing their professional experience, broadening their circle of contacts and, occasionally, applying for jobs. In fact, LinkedIn profiles are even more idealized than our Facebook profiles. uUers often upload serious profile pictures and leave out everything that they don’t want their potential future employer to know.
Now Facebook is a whole other story. There are already several proofs social media profiles are regularly checked when applying for a job. In fact, since we open up more on Facebook, it could not only make it easier for employers to dig deep into your profile for details of your personal life, but it can eventually decide the fate of your application too. And since a job application is already a minefield, nobody wants to show his/her Facebook profile to the future employer, as it is full of party selfies, questionable political opinions, embarrassing comments by grandmas, and other shenanigans. Key information you’d like employers to look at is always buried somewhere under your latest trips, favorite shows, movies, artists etc., one of which can be enough to scare employers away. In addition, there’s yet another, seemingly non-threatening problem which is the over sharing of family pictures, which can easily be another source of conflict.
In conclusion, if any of the above is true for your Facebook presence, not even the most professional LinkedIn profile can save your application from being immediately flushed down the toilet.
Before you start frantically deleting all the information you’ve hoarded for years on your profile, stop for a second and think. Even though there have been some efforts towards this, it is pretty much impossible to leave the internet. Once you upload something it belongs to the world and it can be used by other websites to trace back your existence.
So to prevent employers from getting a bad impression about you, you could just use two separated Facebook profiles, one for personal use, where you can continue posting and sharing like you would normally do, and one for professional use, where you must follow strict rules. For instance, you should stick to just relevant information and never share family and friend pictures or updates. Instead, treat your second, professional Facebook profile as your LinkedIn page and always ask yourself before hitting the Like/Share/Post button: would I post this on LinkedIn as well? If the answer is yes, go ahead, if not, then that goes on your regular Facebook profile.
However, always go through the privacy settings of both profiles and protect your personal oneby making it as strict as possible. This way you can prevent your future employers, or anyone outside your friends’ list for that matter, from peeking into your personal life. As for the professional page, you don’t have to be too strict, as you have to make you profile easily visible to potential employers. However, no matter for which purpose you want to use your Facebook profile, never compromise your privacy for a second.
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