ALERT : Your Social Networking Accounts Are Your New selection criterian

Recent studies cite that nearly 20% employers have started hiring employees after they have scrutinized all their accounts with different social networking sites like orkut, facebook and Myspace, etc. in order to judge their future employees' morals and ethics. Yes, employers have finally done the unthinkable (and, for many, unethical) practice of encroaching into the personal lives of their prospective employees. Uncalled for? Cheap corporate strategy? Callous attitude of the management? Call it what you want, but it's happening, and happening very rapidly at that. The kind of messages and comments exchanged, language used, photographs and videos uploaded say a lot about a person's approach, attitude, responsibilities, seriousness, intellect level, sensitivity, interests, strengths and weaknesses that are real and come first handed, unlike a person stating it all for an interview coming with the prime motive of getting the job.

But just like every coin has two dimensions to it, what about the employee side, is it justified for them at all? Isn't anything that I do apart from my work called my personal life, and someone else poking his nose into it is definitely offensive to me. considering the latest parameters can surely not determine or predominate my dedication and level of sincerity but can only give me copious reasons to be upset.

Everything brings its own pros and cons with it, and soon people adapt themselves to the latest either by surrendering to the same or by finding an easy way out. Here also, people have an easy option to keep such employers at bay by changing the settings to private or visible only to friends. One can also choose to filter out the content regularly, mention your achievements and maybe ask your friends to give you some nice and decent comments for the same.