Social is the New Normal

I was speaking to some B- School students over the weekend, discussing social media. To my surprise one of the students told me that recruiters were now checking Facebook statuses to make more informed decisions on candidates.

The discussion set my mind racing and I wanted to mentally check if I had put up any funny pictures of parties in India or the US that I would have to justify to a prospective recruiter or even to my leaders at my current firm.

I could understand if they used LinkedIn but using Facebook to check on candidates’ personal values is a grey area for me.

On one hand we have privacy issues and I don’t want a recruiter going through my timeline or through my friends list. On the other hand I wonder if all recruiters took the pain of building up a human side to the candidate and look beyond the resume.

So social maybe the new normal for recruitment and this time your personal updates are probably as important as your professional ones.

But do let me know your views on the same. Do you feel comfortable having a recruiter go through your Facebook profile? Or would you like to keep that under wraps?

 By Dr.Vikram Venkateswaran, Founder & Director | TheSocialPeople

Dr. Vikram Venkateswaran is a marketing professional with almost 10 years of experience. He is passionate about public health, blogging, writing, public speaking and lawn tennis. He can be followed on his twitter handle @drvikram. Visit his blog at Docter Soccer.

Founder Speak is our weekly column by the founders of TheSocialPeople- Viral Thaker & Dr.Vikram Venkateswaran.