Ok so I realized there might be some misunderstanding at the base of our dispute so let me head back:
You, as a hirer, require someone to have a professional profile - something along the lines of Picture, Schools, Credentials, etc. You will try and search for applicants on facebook (etc) and if you can find information there, you'll use it. If not, as long as they have the professional requirements you want, you're fine. You don't actually require every applicant to have a facebook account with personal information like family, friends, hobbies, etc.
Correct me if I'm wrong there.
I'm certainly not trying to argue that having a professional profile somewhere is a bad idea as long as it's well controlled. I did just google myself and discovered several people who aren't me that might easily be mistaken for me based on location, etc. I'm really trying to just limit my argument to non-professional information.
I would like you to be somewhere on google. Where on google, I don't care.
This is how I tend to divide resumes when they come in
1) Does not have requirements at all - straight to trash. Honestly, I usually don't even see these.
2) Has requirements and is found on google somewhere either information contradicts or is negative - depending on what it is it could be set aside (kinda like a waitlist) or thrown in trash. Obviously depending on what it is depends on where it goes. If you lie to me about your education, you are gone. If I find out you are a troll, you are gone. If you are boasting about illegal acts, gone. If you just curse like a sailor, waitlist unless I know it will be helpful. And yes people have lied about their education on resumes including claiming they came from my undergrad and have degrees. Yet the alumni association states no record of them found (you are automatically added by name only after a semester). If all your posts are complaining about your job when you are on the clock, that will not go well either. One of my friends (manager) actually called out his employees on facebook for doing just that. I was amused.
3) Has requirements, but no presence or limited. Waitlist. One of my ex's has literally three hits on google, the most recent one was 7 years ago. If he applied to work for me the only reason I would bump him into the primary interview pile would be to ask where the heck he has been for all these years. These people will get vetted further, probably by my cousin unless I have a better connection to whatever it is they claim to have been doing. If they tell me they have been working the ren faire for a decade and haven't seen a computer before, I have ways of checking them. The Hassidim will go to my friend who works in that community. I have connections everywhere. It shouldn't be 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon, it should be 6 degrees of familyaerospace. (My Bacon number is 3 for the record.)
4) Has requirements, has a positive presence. A preliminary scan of their Zoominfo/website/Facebook/Twitter/whatever shows an ok picture or none, confirms something about the person. More likely to be interviewed. I honestly am less worried about photos than visible behaviour. If someone proves themselves to be relatively cool even during a flamewar, I know they can handle some of my worst clients so it is good for them. If we happen to have a friend in common on Facebook or Linkedin, depending on the friend it can help or be neutral. Alternatively if you make me laugh because you do something weird on your post, you might be called in for an interview just for that. Example: my partner changed his FB profile pic to a squirrel and had this long drawn out very creative explanation about when he was in the AF he was subject to a medical experiment and he was really a squirrel. It went on and on. It was the funniest thing I read on facebook but I did not want to encourage him (I told him it was one of the dumbest things I ever read), if I was hiring though and I wasn't married to the man, I would have brought him in for an interview.
Once in a while, I will learn something on an otherwise great applicant that I know could be a problem for no other reason than the environment. Example, I am going to need someone to work on a Saturday, the lady who has a perfect resume but I find out from google that she is a shomer Shabbat (means they don't work on Saturday) Orthodox Jew is not going to get called for that position. I would not want her to violate her religion for me. I will continue down the pile or hit the secondary pile. I will keep it on file.
