Big Bad Recruiting Blog Swap... My name is Tod Hilton and I will be your host for this post. What I am: a software developer at Microsoft and a bunch of other things [father, husband, gamer, snowboarder, etc.]. What I?m not: a recruiter or hiring manager, although I do interview candidates and give the infamous ?hire? or ?no-hire? recommendation.
I am going to segue off of David?s previous post, Students, careers & social networking, and give you my thoughts on the murky waters of... Should a person?s personal, ?outside-of-work? persona be considered by an employer? My answer: yes and no. :-) I know, you?re probably thinking ?what a typical ambiguous answer from yet another corporate drone,? but you couldn?t be further from the truth.
First of all, as an interviewer I do search for candidate information online. College papers, blogs, personal hobby sites, forum posts, yada-yada-yada. I think you can find some very valuable stuff out there. For instance, if we?re interviewing someone who has a blog then I can get some real insight into their thoughts over a period of time versus a 60 minute interview. In the case of software development, it?s a real boon if they have a web site that showcases some personal projects they have tackled. There isn?t room for extra stuff like this on a resume, but it can really sway an interviewer?s opinion.
So back to my ?yes-and-no? answer...
The ?NO? side: I believe very strongly that everyone should be allowed to express their own opinions/beliefs. I wouldn?t even bother blogging if I couldn?t state my own opinions; it would be a complete waste of my time. Along with that, for the most part I feel that those opinions really should not be considered by prospective employers. For example, I can believe wholeheartedly in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and still give 110% at work. I can also be a video game addict [where?s the local chapter meeting this week?] while also delivering above-and-beyond my commitments at work. We?re all individuals and our employers should not only recognize that, but embrace it.
The ?YES? side: Even though we should all be allowed to express our own opinions and beliefs, that doesn?t give us the right to do so in a disrespectful manner. We all have different opinions, but [in my opinion :-)] mature people can discuss them in a respectful way without being insulting, condescending or belittling. In keeping with my Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM) example...� If someone were to have a web site dedicated to spreading the FSM gospel that?s fine and dandy. But if they did so in a way that insulted, cajoled or belittled all other religions then I would begin to wonder what kind of person are they. Are they going to handle work conflicts the same way, by simply attacking everyone around them? Will they be able to resolve conflicts through compromises or will they only be able to see their perspective and never reach a resolution?� I?m sure you see where I?m going with this...
You might consider the persona you present online to be personal and none of your employer?s business, but you also need to remember that your personal actions reflect on you as a whole. At Microsoft, it?s an important part of the hiring process to make sure that candidates are compatible with our company values. Anything you put online about yourself has the potential to influence this process, whether or not that is your intention.
I want to leave you with one final thought. Remember that whatever you post on the internet will live a long, long time...maybe even forever! Public forums, web sites, blogs and newsgroups are archived by several companies (i.e.: Google) so before you hit that ?Submit? button keep in mind that whatever you just wrote will still be available in 1, 2, 5, 10 years.
~tod
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