Image Courtesy - Mid-Day.com
Employers are increasingly screening profiles of prospective employees on popular networking websites like Facebook and Twitter to sift the wheat of truth from the chaff of tall claims that candidates routinely make on their Curriculum Vitae (CV) and during interviews.
Udit Mittal, Managing Director, Unison, a recruitment giant, said, "We screen the candidates' profiles on social networking websites to confirm the information provided to our clients by job applicants."
Mujtaba Altaf from the human resource department of Reebok admitted, "Sometimes, to know what a particular employee is up to during working hours, we visit their online social networking sites and track them."
Professor P D Jose of the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore Placement committee, which managed to land jobs for all its 270 students though campus placements, said, "While the companies we host do not run such background checks, we have an internal CV verification system to check whether the information given in the students' CVs is correct," said Jose.
Dr Thimmappa, a psychologist and former vice chancellor of Bangalore University, said, "I see no problem with the practice unless the information is used maliciously."
However, some job seekers said that snooping on Twitter and Facebook profiles was unethical.
"I would be angry if someone did that. My work is not related to my personal life. I shouldn't be judged for what I post online," said Crystal Gomez, a customer resource officer in Bangalore.