Comments on: Reputation 2.0

By: Tiffany

Tiffany — Fri, 09 May 2008 14:11:38 +0000

Invasion of privacy? What application can privacy possibly have in this context? Information you put online is available in a matter of seconds to hundreds of millions of people around the world–and it's information, for the most part, that you consciously chose to make public. It isn't exactly as if they've tapped your phone line or are reading your email.

By: Is Everything Going 2.0? Health, Science, Museum, Enterprise, Philanthropy, Birding, etc. « SocialButterfly.

Wed, 07 May 2008 04:29:57 +0000

[...] Reputation 2.0: Jeff McCord looks at the importance of one’s online reputation when entering the trenches of the job search in his post titled, Reputation 2.0. [...]

By: JD Yates

JD Yates — Sun, 04 May 2008 00:43:59 +0000

While I do feel like employers making judgments about candidates based on information procured through inherently social networks is an invasion of privacy and that the decision should rest entirely on a personal opinion of the candidate and their relevant qualifications and characteristics, anyone ridiculous enough to blog or twitter about anything they don't expect to be perfectly public (guilty) probably deserves whatever ramifications such indiscretion may inflict upon them.

By: William Addington

William Addington — Sat, 03 May 2008 22:46:18 +0000

Thanks for the good advice. I had my first job experience where I blogged about my boss on a Myspace blog and I found out later that they found it. The blog entry was a terrible emotional moment that I shouldn't have published cause it was a momentary outburst. I later deleted the blog entry after they had read it and apologized for my attitude. They knew I was young so they didn't take any action on it but I learned quickly from that experience to not post and be emotional. After I have read through and edited a blog entry a few times I have usually eliminated bad emotional outbursts that don't really help the blog entry remain interesting and informative.

By: Jeff McCord

Jeff McCord — Sat, 03 May 2008 20:32:29 +0000

Dave, you bring up some great points. It's definitely worth another post, in my opinion, on ways to keep things private. But you're right, I don't think a recruiter is just going to click on "Jane Doe" and make the assumption that Jane Doe is the Jane Doe they're recruiting. That being said, we can search email addresses, former companies' websites, comments etc with any candidate's name. You'd be surprised (generally more of the younger generation) at the amount of questionable content we've seen on Myspace, Youtube and even Facebook from our OWN employees.

By: Jeff McCord

Jeff McCord — Sat, 03 May 2008 20:30:43 +0000

Kelly, I couldn't agree more. Well said!

By: Kelly

Kelly — Sat, 03 May 2008 20:27:21 +0000

In this age of easy access to so much information and our collective willingness to post details about our personal, business and even "private" lives, the demarkation lines from business to personal to private have not just been blurred but blown away. As a department head of a medium size company I can understand why my employer might get restless if I posted anything of a negative nature about our company or even just our business; especially anything negative about a client. I can also see where my employer might frown if I were posting about going out and partying all night long, drinking or doing anything of a morally questionable nature. As an executive or department head I represent my company 24/7, whether I'm okay with that or not. As a culture we have only just begun to understand the full implications of everything we are getting from the days of Web 2.0, and everything we are giving up. Privacy is becoming something we can't afford to live without and something we may not know how to keep. The decision will come down to simply this question, "How much of our lives do we put on the web for all to see and when should we start worrying about what is on the web." Think of this, political campaigns have been damaged by words spoken decades prior. The children of today may have a very hard time in the world of tomorrow when some reporter easily finds comments about doing this or that in a backroom some where. Possible mates may find details about their loved ones from 20 years ago that they just can't get over that today would probably have kept safely in the dark. What's the point, the point is simply this, keeping secrets means not telling anyone even your blog. The hard part is knowing what needs to be a secret and what doesn't when you are 15 years old.

By: Youtube » Reputation 2.0

Youtube » Reputation 2.0 — Sat, 03 May 2008 19:30:36 +0000

[...] Jeff McCord wrote an interesting post today on Reputation 2.0Here’s a quick excerptDo you think it was smart to post that video on YouTube that showed you and a few friends doing a prank to a neighbor? Or what about those heated, political comments you left on a MySpace bulletin one night after a few drinks? … [...]

By: Dave Peterson

Dave Peterson — Sat, 03 May 2008 18:26:50 +0000

This is fascinating to me, and I have a lot of questions. The biggest one being, where does the online reputation search go if the candidate is named… I don't know, Dave Peterson? There are more Dave Petersons around than trees in a forest. I recently Googled my name and I couldn't find me (just checked again and found one blog post that was me). The more distinct identifier would be an email address. so I just checked mine. Zero returns. Now, if I give my more distinct blog/domain name to a potential employer, that at least gives them a place to start, but what's done when this information isn't offered or (suppressed shudder) the candidate doesn't have a web site? Of course, anywhere (like Twitter) where I've locked down the user name "davepeterson" and removed all doubt by linking in a photo, it does get easier. I Google my Twitter name and I do get a few results (mostly Cali Lewis saying nice things about me, so that's more than okay). I've left footprints all over the Internet, but if I didn't know exactly where (and where not) I think I'd have a hard time finding myself. Great post! Very thought provoking. I'm off to check out your LifeHacker link.