Employers look online for clues to job seeker's lifestyle

Tomorrow's worker bees are today's young adults, but any thoughts of future 9-to-5 jobs, neckties, cubicles and benefits are often buried beneath the pursuits of youth.

Young people have been warned recently: be careful how you portray yourself online, it might harm your job chances down the road. Your life today may revolve around keg parties and beach days, but a potential employer may think twice about hiring you if you detail the party lifestyle on Myspace.com or some other Web site.

But are area employers really scouring the Internet to research job candidates? The answer is yes and no.

By and large, the larger, old-guard companies haven't changed their human resource practices when it comes to hiring. Companies like Mercy Hospital and Maine Medical Center aren't Googling candidates, and TD Banknorth and UnumProvident don't check out Myspace or Facebook. They still rely on resumes, references and, sometimes, background checks performed by professional firms.

But some smaller, tech-savvy area businesses have added varied Web searches to their HR toolbox. Westbrook-based JobsInTheUS.com has Googled every job candidate for the past year and this summer began searching both Myspace and Facebook for applicant profiles.

"It is absolutely amazing to me what kids are putting up there without realizing it's available to the world," said Matt Hoffner, president of the quickly growing Internet job site company. "The fundamental issue is they're putting it up there as a badge of honor as to what a great partier they are without thinking of the long-term employment implications."

Google and Myspace are available to the general public. Facebook is exclusively for students and alumni. Hoffner said JobsInTheUS college interns do the Facebook searches, getting around the exclusivity issue. "It's hard to hide anymore," said Hoffner.

Hoffner said they're really looking for inconsistencies with representations made on applicants' resumes. A Google search earlier this year tripped up one candidate, said Hoffner. The applicant had certain jobs listed during different years, but a Google check found an alumni magazine published a brief item about that candidate doing freelance work -- supposedly while holding a full-time job elsewhere.

"The dates didn't quite jibe with some of the info she was giving us," said Hoffner.

In looking for potential job candidates, Pierce Promotions of Portland goes through all the major online search engines, such as Monster.com, HotJobs.com and even Craigslist, said President Bob Martin. The company has also started checking further into their candidates using Google and Myspace, said Martin.

"The unique thing about the Internet is that it's so searchable. You type in somebody's name in Google and anything that's ever been printed on the Web comes up," said Martin. "We absolutely use that."

Martin said no actual hiring decisions have been based on what the company has found through its online searches. Rather, he said, the searches provide a better sense of a candidate.

"MySpace is, in a lot of ways, a reflection of somebody's character or sometimes even alter egos," said Martin. "It says something about them, not necessarily good or bad. It helps us figure out and define a person's character a little more."

Don Doele, current president of the Human Resource Association of Southern Maine, said that it seems to be small, tech-oriented companies that have begun to use such online searches in their hiring process. Most small companies won't be sophisticated enough to do such searches, he said. And large companies, which make lots of hires, generally aren't taking the time to do the searches and have many traditional resources they use to check out candidates, he said.

The Web-based searches definitely don't supplant those traditional methods, noted Martin. "The best way to know somebody is sitting downK and talking with them," Martin said.

Attorney Jim Erwin, head of the employment group at Pierce Atwood in PortlaKnd, said the online search concept and its impact on HR policies is still unfolding.

"The rules of the road for employers have yet be written when it comes to the attempt to use information off the Internet about prospective applicants," said Erwin.

He did offer some thoughts on companies using these techniques to screen potential employees.

First, said Erwin, the companies should make sure that any information uncovered was actually about the candidate, not somebody else with the same name.

Second, he suggested, companies need to consider just how germane any information found is to the hiring decision.

And, he said, there's a question of whether companies can actually trust the information uncovered.

"There's a trust issue; how accurate is the information you're getting?" said Erwin.

People who post information on the Internet don't have a reasonable expectation of privacy, so they shouldn't be shocked that companies are researching them by these means, Erwin said. But companies should be aware of at least one legal issue.

He painted this scenario: A company does an Internet search on candidate "John Doe" and finds information that Doe did something criminal or morally reprehensible. The company doesn't check to make sure it's the same John Doe as the guy being considered for a job - doesn't do any further investigation.

Then the company HR professionals tell other people in the firm that the candidate is linked to that information.

If the candidate isn't the same John Doe and Doe finds out what was said about him, he could sue for defamation, said Erwin.

That's not new law or a sticky situation created by technology, said Erwin. But the Internet makes it possible to make those mistakes in new ways, he said.

"Employers do have to be careful of this information. It's not just about making a mistake, there's also some potential legal situations," said Erwin.

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