Employers' Background Investigation (i.e. social media)

[Guest 1152923]

I have an interview Monday with a potential employer and am hoping that they extend an offer.  In anticipation of a background investigation, I am considering suspending my AN and social media accounts.  I try to maintain a degree of anonymity and have never written anything super controversial or outing former employers, but some of my post on AN, although truthful, are less than flattering.  Because all my accounts are tied to an email which can be traced back to me, what do you recommend?

[walkingrock, ADN]

23 hours ago, Emergent said:

What was the post about?

It was so long ago, I don’t remember specifically. I’m thinking it was a video of the nurse saying something that was thought to be racist by a patient that saw it and made a nasty reply to it on facebook about not wanting that nurse to take care of her/her family members. It could have been a still picture with a comment. I know I saw it personally and thought it crossed a line I wouldn’t have crossed, but it was also not explicitly racist. 

[Hoosier_RN, MSN]

On 10/8/2021 at 10:05 PM, LovingLife123 said:

But they can’t find an anonymous account on AN.  Googling your name and finding an article is different.  I Google myself regularly.  My stuff is locked down tight.  If I find anything, I fix it by changing privacy settings.

I've Googled myself a few times. I almost don't exist. As far as social media, I go by one name on there, another name in real life. The email that I use for employment opportunities is different than my social media email, as well as my online shopping accounts (4 different emails). I like my privacy, and only show up in public records for land ownership 

[Guest1176712]

On 10/8/2021 at 11:16 AM, Jedrnurse said:

Ah, that's the piece I was missing. It's good then that not a soul around me knows what AN even is...

If anyone ever should ask, I'll tell them my username is "Goodandfaithfulemployee"

I keep my usernames secret and never use the same one twice. If asked, I leave blank... "What is social media?" ?  It is good, like another post stated, to Google yourself. Find out what peeps can find out about you. Esp on those horrible peoplefinder sites. You can look up how to stop them yourself for free. Look up ways to protect your anonymity and privacy in general not just for work.

[Jedrnurse, BSN, RN]

3 minutes ago, AtomicNurse said:

I keep my usernames secret and never use the same one twice. If asked, I leave blank... "What is social media?" ?  It is good, like another post stated, to Google yourself. Find out what peeps can find out about you. Esp on those horrible peoplefinder sites. You can look up how to stop them yourself for free. Look up ways to protect your anonymity and privacy in general not just for work.

I Googled myself and was...unimpressed.

[Guest1176712]

9 minutes ago, Jedrnurse said:

I Googled myself and was...unimpressed.

My results were pretty nil too. I did see the peoplefinder sites with inaccurate info and took care of that individually. 

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

Googling myself found I'm "an American art director who won an Academy Award in the category Best Art Direction" in CA   or a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner in VA, or notary republic in MI.    99% my "social media" is here past 20 years.  Since Karen is a meme name these days, comes up more frequently on Twitter!    Did have a new HR associate perform search on here, nothing significant found,

When reviewing applicants, those I was considering I did perform internet search to get sense of their personality, any outrageous behavior bad mouthing employer (burned once) and good fit with my office staff; most often nothing found.  Did review agency social media policy as part of yearly P+P review, to keep staff out of hot water with Admin + HR staff.

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

Generally I'm Popeye, "I yam what I yam." and with an eye to not spreading confidential information. Once its in the newspaper though, its fair game. I can have an opinion about a newspaper article without talking about my work life.

That said, I don't list my employer or career on social media, though some "special" patients have said "and she's a NURSE" when they see my comments. I don't post anything I wouldn't want my boss seeing. I've actually talked to her about my commenting on local public issues but not on work stuff.  We have public health care, so political decisions and elections very much affect work.