to think that most people don't have the first clue how destructive facebook can be to a career

[ReallyTired]

I feel for young teens/ students who post all kinds of rubbish on facebook with scant regard to who might read it. (Ie. school, future employer) Even older people do not realise that if you post something then your "friends" can share it and something can quickly be spread across the word. If you have contraversial opinons be sure who you share them with.

I had a shock when a post written by a TA at my son's school came up on my timeline. One of my "friends" had shared the post and commented on it. I am sure the TA never intended the post to read by parents of the kids that she worked with. I had never realised that the woman in question was a facist Britain First supporter. I find it frightening that she works with EAL kids and holds such views.

There is a theory that there is six aquaintances between everyone on earth. I imagine it could be quite possible for a head teacher to find themselves reading a post by a TA. If I was a head teacher and found out that a TA supported British First then I would not renew their contract if their role involved working with EAL children.

Alpaca - would you really do that? ? It completely depends on what was said, but if I felt that it was necessary - absolutely.

Even older people do not realise that if you post something then your "friends" can share it and something can quickly be spread across the word. If you have contraversial opinons be sure who you share them with.

Only if you have your posts set to public. If you have good privacy settings, and check them regularly nothing can be read by anyone who isn't your friend.

I'm very careful about what I post on Facebook. It's mostly daft boring stuff. I'm only friends with actual real life friends, not with loads of random people. The most shocking photo anyone will see of me will be of me sitting with some friends with a glass of wine in front of me. My privacy settings are all set to 'friends only' and I never comment on or share political or religious posts, or anything remotely controversial. I think any adult should show enough judgement to take care as to how they present themselves and if they haven't got the sense to do that, then that's good news for me because presumably it will make me a more attractive prospective employers than some of my competitors will be.

I would however be very dubious of an employer looking back in ten years time to something that someone has posted now at the age of 13 and holding it against them, as I don't think 13 year olds should be held to the same standards as 23 year olds.

It amazes me that some people still have public profiles on Facebook and aren't tightening up their privacy settings. My profile is set to Friends Only and I rarely comment on any public posts. I am an active member of various FB groups but they are all closed ones so my comments there don't show up in my friends' news feeds and I have a list called Work, from which I hide anything I post during a working day and most photos of my DS as I'm sure they don't want to see that.

However I know someone who has a public profile with her home address on it and is a big show off so frequently posts "new B&O TV delivered today" or "My new MacBook finally arrived" followed by, a week later, "Can't wait til I'm on the beach in Spain tomorrow!" Probably not the best idea dear...

What winewinewine says. Feels to me fear of the Internet is reaching ridiculous proportions.

In the end there is nothing inherently dangerous about the Internet. People have always done stupid stuff, it's just now you're more likely to get caught out.

I'm constantly amazed at what some people post, they don't seem to have appropriate life filters for inane bullshit, illegal acts or controversial opinions.

britain first posts are rife, i do think people should source where the get the info from but they just don't see the bigger picture, it's pretty depressing really

Depends on your job, simon.

If you're CEO of BP, it might not go down to well if you're supporting some group that takes direct action against power stations.

The OP specifies that the TA in question works with children who have English as an Additional Language. Racist or anti-immigration views are likely to conflict directly with what she does in her job every day.

I do not list my employer on facebook for this very reason.

While I agree with most of the points on the thread, it makes me wonder how employers know they've found the 'right' prospective employee on FB.

I'm not on Facebook, but presumably plenty of other people with my name are. What checks are employers making about getting the right person?

How do prospective employers check up on you on facebook?

Unless your profile is open I suppose. But I don't think anyone would have an open profile nowadays would they? Even when I first joined facebook back in 2005 you had to be friends with someone to see their posts.

That's the point of the profile photo, HerBigChance!

And any other photos, plus school info, that the prospective employer will recognise.

"
The internet wasn't invented for this."

I miss the days when I used the internet's precessor to upload my fortran programmes to a supercomputer in Manchester. Everything was so much simpler.

HR departments will look a candidate up on Facebook when recruiting. It tells them a lot about the person.
Anyone looking for a new job should lock down their profile and consider changing their name. A teacher I know uses her first and middle name as her Facebook name.
Also adding students and parents is stupidity when you're a teacher or work in a school. These things can really backfire

I work in IT and I don't have any customers on mine. I refuse their requests as it crosses a line!

Thanks PausingFlatly. Clearly, it looks as though enough personal information is being posted for prospective employers to match up the right person.

I'm a teacher and post on FB with my real details. My privacy settings are the maximum they can be, yet I never write anything about my work, or anything that I wouldn't be happy to stand by if I was ever challenged.

I'm staggered by how stupid some people can be with regard to what they post.

I list my employer but I make no comments on anything about work; good or bad, on my statuses or my colleagues, even though my privacy settings are very secure. I don't 'like' anything to do with work either. I know of two people who have been sacked as a direct result of making stupid comments on Facebook.
Anyone who thinks they can get away with writing anything about work is deluded. Its not worth the risk.

Some large companies or organizations might be able to have backdoor access to FB?

or all your internet activity for that matter

I don't think so Suzanne! I think companies have better things to spend their time and money on, and they would have no way of using the information against you if they found anything they should not have had access to.
And it would be impossible to identify all your online accounts anyway!
Basic sensible behaviour is all that is needed. Keep things private and be careful what you post.

Maybe if the company you applied to work for was actually Facebook then they could but otherwise I doubt it!

Not to mention that hacking someone's account is illegal! There is no "backdoor" access.

I was fired three weeks for accidently uploading a photo (tame, non-identifying, not rude) I deleted it once I realised. Colleague told the boss and I was fired.