Skip to content
Login

I know what you did last summer

Posted by Duncan O'Leary at 9:46am on Friday, 1st December 2006

As useful as Google is, I think it might have some interesting effects on the recruitment decisions of the future – something we are looking at here.


Ten years ago you sent your CV, covering letter and reference to your potential employer – providing them with the information that you wanted them to have about you.


Now Google tracks and records people’s past in a way that was simply not possible a decade ago. And more than this – Google sees no distinction between your personal and professional life.


So all your fantastic achievements with a past employer may rank significantly below the photos of you being sick behind a hedge at university, disgracing yourself at the office Christmas party, or pouring your out heart on Myspace, Livejournal, or Facebook. 


Possibly not the information you would have supplied in that CV and covering letter ten years ago.


ps – if you have read anything interesting on this kind of thing drop me an email, I’d be really interested to see what’s already been written

pps – if you’re still reading, have a look at Demos’s new project on privacy that will be looking at some of these kinds of questions

Comments

1
I can't help but think that this is a very Demos-centric view of the world. For those of us who have embraced the tools of the internet wholeheartedly, then what you say is probably true. But there are vast swathes of the population who do not keep MySpaces and Livejournals, and who work in jobs that do not need every new development logged online. I don't think we're there yet. I just Googled an old girlfriend, to try and find out what she may be up to (we haven't spoken in five years). Despite the fact I actually know personal information about her that an employer would not, I still cannot find a single trace of her online. And since she dumped me via e-mail, I think we can say that she was fairly computer literate! Don't forget also that people often use pseudonyms or first names on social networking websites. While you do indeed leave a trail as you surf online, that is not to say that an employer who does not know you would be able to follow it.
Posted by Robert Sharp  at 2:39pm on Friday, 1st December 2006
2
Hi Robert,

i think you're right - and i felt conscious of that when i was writing the post. This is clearly more likely to affect some people than others. Some people clearly aren't interested in posting up their life on the web, some use pseudonyms as you say, and some people's jobs won't be affected by this anyway.

However, i think that given that MySpace now has more than 100 million registered members it's worth looking in to. And i'd also guess that although it may not be a huge issue yet, that's partly because of timing and demographics. The people embracing facebook etc the most are young'uns who aren't yet applying for jobs, but are using technology in new ways, including making use of sites like those i mentioned

...In which case it may be one to watch for ten years' time - but of course it would be too late by then...
Posted by Duncan O'Leary  at 9:45am on Monday, 4th December 2006

LOGIN to add comments