You have been unemployed and after months and months of sending out resumes you finally get an interview. The interview is going so well that you and the hiring manager are ready to start singing Kumbaya together. You have nailed the interview and you know it.
Then the final question, "Mr. Andersen, please give us your house keys and address. We want to make sure you are Interglobal Worldwide Corporation material. After all, we can't let just anyone design our new line of widgets."
Your mouth agape you wonder what happened to singing Kumbaya and hand over your house keys ... because you really need the job.
Think that is far-fetched? It isn't. Every day across the United States hopeful job-seekers are being asked to hand over their Facebook user IDs and passwords by HR managers so that they can see if there is anything iffy in your profile.
Like this:
Which suggests you are a lush with poor taste in beer
Or this:
Which shows a pattern of abuse ... never mind that you were 19, in the Army, in a foreign country and kinda stupid at the time.
To me this is no different than asking for my house keys and then going over to my house and rifling though my sock drawer. I am sure that each and every one of has something embarrassing in our houses. I know that if someone went through my house they would be shocked and appalled at the science projects growing in my refrigerator. But that does not mean I would not be a good employee. Just like the photos above do not mean I am a drunkard—the first one was taken at a baseball game and was one of two beers I had that month. The second, well, I was 19 and stupid. Again, does not mean I would not be a good employee.
Potential job candidates deserve a modicum of privacy. If my Facebook page is private then it is private and you have no right to look at. I promise you if I ever go to a job interview and I am asked for my Facebook Login ID and password, the hiring manager is going to get a short, loud, two word answer. First word starts with F and the second starts with Y.
For the record, I stand by my choice in beer ... Schlitz is a pretty good cheap beer.