The perils of having a common name are supposedly immense,
especially in this age of social media. For instance, after our discussion in
the SMS class, I thought it would be a great idea to search for my name on Google.
Result? There are just not two “Richa Suri”s but multiple of them on the web.
And what further complicates things is a few of us (yes, now we all “Richa Suri”s
are “us”! :P ) are from the same home town - New Delhi. And the cherry on the top, it just
turns out that one of my name twin also lives in the same locality and is
supposedly my neighbor. *sigh * The saving grace is that our research guru ‘Google’
tells me that she is a great architect and not being chased by police! :P
I wonder if the first 3 pages of Google baffled me, then
what about potential recruiters? I had to click on every link to check whether
it is me or someone else. Would the recruiters have so much patience to connect
these pieces of jigsaw puzzle and find the real “me” on these sites? Or is it going
to provide a very distorted picture?
According to a study conducted by Harris Interactive for CareerBuilder.com, 45
percent of employers questioned are using social networks to screen job
candidates. The study, which questioned 2,667 managers and human resource
workers, found that 35 percent of employers decided not to offer a job to a
candidate based on the content uncovered on a social networking site.
While most of these may seem like obvious stumbling blocks,
what constitutes alarming behavior to a particular employer? Would photographs
of a trip to Oktoberfest be considered inappropriate? What about a costume INSEAD
party with the theme “Angels & Demons” or better still “Pimps and Hoes”? As
Facebook continues to grow as an essential personal and business networking
tool for most of the Web, these issues are only going to get thornier.
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