Be careful with FACEBOOK

Nurses Job Hunt

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So I applied and interviewed at the three local hospitals, which are collectively part of one hospital system.

One of the hiring managers hired me, and said that human resources would follow up. The other two hospitals also told me that human resources would be in touch with me either way. A month and a half later I have not heard from anyone. I called several times and never had my message returned. Finally I got in touch with the manager who hired me and she told me that I posted on facebook a year ago the following:

Someone wrote on my wall asking where I'd like to work when I graduate. I responded saying my dream job would be at ******* but it's a long commute so I would settle for *******. I'm leaving out the names, but I said I would settle for working for the local hospital group, which just so happens to be the three places I interviewed. The manager said it is out of her hands and she doesn't know if I have the job or not.

Never in a million years did I think this would come back to bite me in the butt. I am VERY careful about what I do on social media. No alcohol, no swearing, none of that. I am so upset. Now it's almost 7 months since I graduated, I thought I had a job, and I don't. I'm worried that I will never find a job. The more time that goes by the more nervous I am and the less confident I feel I would make a good nurse.

Which leads me to my next question... Is there anything I can do while I am waiting for a job? I'd volunteer my time if it meant I could use and learn some skills.

Specializes in Med/Surg,Cardiac.

What scares me is when soneone gets angry and creates a fake facebook just to bash people and try to get you in trouble :/

Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.

Sorry that's happened to you.

What I do with Facebook is the following:

1. Privacy settings set to the strictest possible settings

2. Do not play games or use any FB apps.

3. Do not allow myself to be tagged in anything without my specific approval

4. Friend coworkers with caution and if necessary, take full advantage of those lists to control exactly who sees what

5. Post nothing on there that I wouldn't say directly to my manager's face.

It has not given me a problem yet.

Though I will admit I have a second account under my work-emails which has absolutely nothing under it, nor do I ever post in it. But if someone were to search by my work/professional e-mail address, that is what they would find.

Specializes in geriatrics.
This problem is not so much fb but the fact that you appear not to have any privacy settings turned on. How is it that someone you are not a "friend" with can look at your fb page in so much detail? If you don't know how to block your page then I think you should consider shutting it down.
Precisely. I am always careful about what I post on facebook, but my page is private, friends only. So unless I "friend" you personally, you have no access to my page. Check your settings. I also do random searches on my name just to see what might pop up. We all need to be careful.

Ummm, your cop in school friend is either lying to you, or he is hacking the accounts. Some schools have tried to force students to reveal their passwords, it has been ruled illegal. Whatever the case, he should be careful. If I found out that he was accessing my child's personal FB account, it would not be pretty.

Precisely. I am always careful about what I post on facebook, but my page is private, friends only. So unless I "friend" you personally, you have no access to my page. Check your settings. I also do random searches on my name just to see what might pop up. We all need to be careful.

I searched my email address just the other day and was surprised what came up. It wasn't anything too bad, but I had signed up for an account on an astrology website where I made a post or two and apparently didn't make my email address private. So, I changed that. You can still click on the link and the site pops up, but nothing else. I also created an account that I had to make for a school assignment and the public could see everything I had to upload to that site. It wasn't anything bad, but there was a resume on there...and I did leave off a previous employer to one job I applied to. That would be a reason for someone not to hire me if they saw that.

I've considered deleting my Facebook account. Even though I have my privacy settings on, I just don't trust people. My mom asked me to login to my account one time from her house so that she could look at one of my friend's pages. So, that's one way people who aren't your friends can see your account. I have a lot of "acquaintances" rather than true friends on Facebook. I'm sure they'd open my page in a heartbeat if someone asked. I recently went through and changed almost every status update I've ever made so it's viewable to "Only Me." Who's to say that even one of my nursing school friends who is bitter that they didn't get a job wouldn't blast some innocent comment I made 3 years ago and forgot about? I dunno...I still might delete it. I just dread starting one all over!

I've wondered about that. My FB is set to "friends only" and my maiden name is in there, so if someone searches for the name on my resume they shouldn't find anything. I Google myself regularly but hadn't thought to check my email address. I have one email address on my resume for just job searching. My mom is always telling me that my FB posts (when I get another rejection) is hurting my chances but I don't see how it could if it's inaccessible to non-friends.

Check out spokeo.com--it's scary. Put your name in and it will pull up your address, a picture of your house, the names and ages of any household members, the value of your home, and for a monthly subscription will search 70 social media sites and give all that info too. You can remove yourself from there but it's still something to look into.

Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.

Oh, I also do not use my real name on FB.

My cop friend did not lie to me. I was at the school bringing him a coffee when the administrator came in and gave him the name of two students who got into a fight. She said there had been reports that someone recorded it and posted it on facebook and she wanted him to check their FB to see if anything had been posted. He did not hack into the account or get into their personal account, he just accessed the account as if he was on their friends list and able to see their posts.

Specializes in ER, progressive care.

Even with having the most privacy settings, employers can still look you up on Facebook and view all of your information, posts, etc. This happened to a friend of mine. She had all of the privacy settings in place, made some posts about work and the next day her NM spoke to her about it. She was never friends with her NM or with any of her coworkers. It can happen.

If you decide to become friends with your coworkers on Facebook, be very cautious. NEVER post anything about work. Do not include your place of employment, either. My Facebook says that I am an RN but I work at "hospital" instead of my actual place of employment. Use the setting that requires you to pre-approve tagged posts/pictures prior to them showing up on your timeline.

In the meantime, though, I suggest temporarily deactivating your account until the background check is complete.

I deactivated my FB as soon as I got off the phone with the Nurse Manager.

The very next day I was online looking for jobs and found out about an open house at a psychiatric hospital the following day (yesterday). I went to the open house and this morning at 9 am they called me and offered me a 24 hour/week job. I am very excited! Especially after all that has happened. I guess everything happens for a reason. Now I am on a quest to find a per-diem job outside of psych! I don't want to limit myself.

I'm still not going to reactivate my facebook, Ill stay off it for while! Browsing allnurses.com is enough internet action for me!

It's not just Facebook though. Be smart in any kind of communication, especially posts online. Allnurses is a great resource, but I wouldn't post extensive details here about sensitive matters any more than I would on my Facebook page.

Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.

Super happy for you!

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