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.

If you're going to add coworkers to any social networking site, make sure it's just a professional network like Linkedin. Also, if you do your facebook privacy settings correctly, you can't even by found by other people. However, it is probably best to deactivate a facebook account during a Job Search!

Facebook has privacy settings that you must not have been using. Nobody can see my posts except friends. You may have had your settings set to friends of friends, or acquaintances, or even friend requests. You can't even find my fb page or my name b/c I have the privacy settings high enough.

It sounds like you have done what you can to protect your privacy, but you cannot control who sees if you comment on someone else's post or a page that does not belong to you. For example, I had really strict privacy settings, & I wrote on an event wall following a party invite that I was unable to attend. When you googled me, that comment would show up as public b/c the event creator controlled who could access posts on that page. I had to delete the comment to remove it from public searches. Just an example to illustrate the loopholes.

Specializes in geriatrics.

As mentioned, you can be linked by posts you've made on other people's pages. I was always well aware of this, and I'm careful about what I say on other people's pages for that reason. I also google my name periodically to see what pops up. I'm not concerned. Realistically, anything you post on the net is open season, so it's always best to use tact. I'm surprised at how many people don't understand this yet.

Holy crap! Good thing I never post personal stuff on FB, at least nothing about pts , hospitals, coworkers! Wow, I had no idea people would take that extra step and check out people's facebooks!

Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

Yep - looking at internet/social networking presence is common practice for hiring anyone now

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