Check Your Privacy Filters: Facebook Wants To Be the New LinkedIn (cnet.com)

From a report on CNET: Facebook isn't just for wasting time in the office. It can now help you find a new job entirely. The social network has unveiled a Jobs page, which allows businesses to list all kinds of work for you to find. You can even apply for the job and make contact with recruiters directly through Facebook. This could be seen as a challenge to competing services such as LinkedIn, the recruiting network acquired by Microsoft last December. But while LinkedIn is entirely focused on business, Facebook's social aspects could make it easier for potential employers to trawl your profile for details of your personal life.

Comments

Yeah, no thanks.

[Lord Kano]

I do my best to keep my personal and professional personas separate.

I share politically incorrect jokes and use profanity on my Facebook page but I would never do anything of the kind on LinkedIn.

I don't even list my employer on my FB profile.

LK

Re:Yeah, no thanks.

[cayenne8]

I would say...for your first job, do what you gotta do to get in.

From there....meet people and NETWORK yourself. Meet people in your business, be sociable with them and be someone they like and would like to work with.

I have found that going forward in a career, most often isn't what you know, but WHO you know.

Your professional network is your most valuable tool to use to switch jobs and move up the ladder.

I don't do social media, and I've not had problems so far keeping employed either with W2 or 1099 contracting.

It pays to develop your social skills, because quite often it may mean YOU get the job over someone else that might be technically a bit more qualified. But if you are personable and know people, you will get the edge and the nod 9/10 times.

Over-sharers nightmare + legal age discrimination

[ErichTheRed]

People are indeed going to have to check their privacy settings (assuming Facebook will allow the Jobs stuff to respect them.) Over-sharers are the obvious target (old sage advice about not posting keg stand videos or political opinions applies here.) But, there's something more insidious -- recruiters will buy access to Facebook Jobs, and start randomly trawling through profiles looking for a match. What happens when they see someone like me, a 41 year old dad with 2 young kids? I can just imagine some 22 year old cold-calling recruiter fresh out of their business degree saying "Oh, let's skip him, he'd never fit in at Company X." It would just be another way to side-step rules on age discrimination. Unlike the stereotypes, I work my butt off to stay current and not be an old stick in the mud. It's a lot of fun being the "adult" in a younger group of peers because I do enjoy sharing knowledge and teaching people. But, I do know that if I'm ever caught out in a layoff situation and don't have any luck with my contacts, I'm pretty stuck when it comes to getting cold recruited for a job. This is why my LinkedIn profile doesn't have a photo, even though I look pretty young.

I wish we could just get beyond the whole recruiter thing. Often, these guys are the only way to get your resume even looked at in big companies, and they're basically sponging off your salary. It's kind of like real estate agents -- they still get a huge commission even though most of their job is now automated (MLS sites replace books of Polaroids, Zillow and friends replace their knowledge of the market, and people generally drive themselves around looking for houses now.) Back in the day, recruiters had the same advantage as intermediaries even though most professionals put some or all of their qualifications out on LinkedIn or similar for people to see. The company I work for uses recruiters, and the worst offenders are the big temp companies they make us recruit through (TEKSystems, etc.) We have had painful interviews with people who have been presented to us as experts and quite obviously have had their resumes doctored by these guys. (And, we're not a bunch of hipster recent CS grads asking stumper questions -- we're looking for generalists with amazing troubleshooting skills mostly.)

Bottom line is that you have to keep the professional network going, lest you be at the mercy of these recruiters.

Facecrap

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

"Facebook Wants To Be the New LinkedIn"

Facecrap wants to be the new everything. Soon it will achieve critical mass and spawn the Singularity.

This is just another way for Facecrap to mine more of your data and suck you dry while it blurs the line between your work life and your personal life. No thank you.