By-Two Kaapi in an oilfield

Winds of Change brings up an exciting topic:

Had an interesting conversation with an HR professional today on the subject of employers running searches to see if a candidate has a MySpace page et. al. This is apparently something coming up in her HR training classes.

Facebook is less problematic, because you have to accept their friend invitation or they can't see your profile. LinkedIn isn't an issue because it's explicitly a professional site. So I'm taking those off the table, and focusing on 2 things:

• Searching for and viewing a MySpace page or other public access social networking site profile
• Using Google to track someone back to a blog, and using that in a hiring decision

Ethical? Useful? Wise from HR's point of view?

Let me make it simpler for us Indians.

Say you are a recruiting manager for an Indian firm.

• Would you Google me out before you interview me?
• Would my Orkut profile matter in your recruitment decision?
• Would you just read my blog or would that influence your choice?

Facebook and LinkedIn do not feature because of the issues listed in the article. And for a moment, think on both sides of the issue. And think about yourself, your Orkut profile, your blog.