I was indignant and horrified for ten seconds when I heard that employers were requiring job applicants to supply their Facebook passwords during the selection process. Then I realized that if employers do that, it will be a wonderful way to signal to job-seekers, "Don't Work Here." I only hope that these employers make it clear in their help-wanted ads that they're requiring FB passwords from job applicants, so that the job-seekers don't waste time filling out applications and sending resumes to toadish organizations that don't deserve them.
If you have an ounce of faith in your company's leadership, would you really believe that you can't hire good employees without digging into their personal lives via back-end access to their Facebook accounts? How paranoid would an organization have to be, to doubt its own managers' instincts so severely that it doesn't trust them to hire smart people without resorting to KGB-type snooping tactics?
When you apply for a job, the employer has a lot of ways to check you out already.
They see your resume. They see your LinkedIn profile, and the endorsements on it and the people you're connected to. (You need one, in my opinion, if you don't have one already.) They can talk to you over the phone, and then can meet you in person, multiple times. They can talk to your past employers. They can pose real-life business problems to you. They can get you to create a writing sample.
What else do they need? If they can't make a decision about you by interacting with you, your branding materials and other people who know you, they're already way too obtuse to get any value from invading your Facebook account.
There are people who shouldn't be involved in the hiring process in any way, and way too many of those people are hiring managers and HR people. If they say they need your FB account to make the decision on whether or not to hire you, they're too stupid to be managing people. You don't have time to work among people like that.
It's brilliant that the worst employers, the most fear-based and uncreative ones, are adopting the employer-branding signal "We require FB login information from our applicants." That is an employer brand sure to bring them the fearful, please-the-boss-above-all sorts of applicants they seek. The more clearly an organization conveys the message "We talk about talent, but have no actual talent in the building" the better for everyone else -- the human, talent-worthy organizations and the job-seekers, both.
Follow Liz Ryan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/asklizryan
I know many talented people through various fields such as architecture, design, construction etc being turned down because of their background, OK what a person did in the past may not be good but they are still being punished & the sad reality is that people end up very frustrated and angry.
When someone says to me that a bad employer can cause a liability then the liability can only be done if that person has messed up at work and their private life has nowt to do with it, too many good people out their but rejected because of this, its all about reputation people trying to get perfect people well believe me there's no such thing
THANK YOU
This isn't true for all Facebook profiles but you can definitely get an idea of how reliable and intelligent someone is based on their Facebook profiles - especially an older Facebook account. Some people might cry about how Facebook doesn't pertain to real life and you shouldn't be judged from it - blah blah blah. It's the same as judging someone's ability by looking at his or her resume.
"You will not share your password, (or in the case of developers, your secret key), let anyone else access your account, or do anything else that might jeopardize the security of your account."