Hiring 2.0 | The rules have changed for employers and job seekers alike. Say hello to the virtual background check.

Kyunhea Kwon doesn't want anything to get in the way of landing her first advertising job.

So the recent University of Maine graduate from Old Town takes care of the usual suspects: she's in the middle of an advertising internship, has an impressive resume, trolls job sites on the Internet and makes sure she's prepared for interviews.
And Kwon also goes a step further — she goes virtual. Aware that potential employers might look beyond her resume and references, Kwon keeps her online alter ego as professional as her interview persona.

That's because Kwon knows prospective employers will probably type her name into Google's online search engine and check out what pops up. They'll look for the Kyunhea Kwon represented by personal profiles on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, two of the most popular sites where young people post profiles and keep in touch with friends.

Kwon's avoided posting on her profile boozy photos or pics of her partying with her sorority sisters. "If my Facebook page is going to affect the way a future employer will screen me, I'm more than willing to make the extra effort to keep it clean," she says. "If I was a recruiter, I would prefer to hire someone with a clean, business-like profile rather than someone with a profile littered with partying and things like that."

Kwon's not alone. Increasingly, job seekers like her are getting savvy about their online presence because college career centers tell recent graduates to be wary of what they post on the Web. "We certainly caution students not to stay away from those sites, but to be very careful about what they and their friends put on their site," says Larry Bliss, director of career services and professional life development at the University of Southern Maine.

These days, no job seeker should be surprised if a potential employer Googles them. In a 2006 survey, Execunet.com reported that 77% of executive recruiters used search engines like Google or Yahoo to research a job candidate. And 35% of those recruiters eliminated a candidate based on information uncovered online — up from 26% in 2005. "There's an awful lot of information on the Web that employers use on a regular basis," says Rick Dacri, a human resources consultant in Kennebunk and president of the Human Resources Association of Southern Maine.

So-called Web 2.0 applications like social networking sites Facebook and MySpace, and sites like Wikipedia where anyone can contribute, have left a big mark on the Internet. Now, a person only needs Internet access to become a worldwide personality. This instant getting-to-know-you creates a tool for employers to dig into a job applicant's past or catch a glimpse of an applicant beyond his or her professional resume, freshly pressed interview attire and the standard criminal background check.

Data download
Though this relatively new way to research job applicants has lately garnered a large amount of media attention and is discussed in human resources circles, it's still not a widespread practice here in Maine. Several businesses contacted for this story said they don't use Internet search engines or social networking sites during the hiring process. April Clark, Maine area vice president for staffing firm Manpower Inc., says her Maine division works with up to 500 clients a year and none of them have formally requested a Google search as part of the vetting process.

Idexx Laboratories Inc. in Westbrook doesn't use Internet searches when hiring, either. "We'd rather focus on the attributes of an individual, on their resume or from interviews or personal reference checking," says Mary Davis, Idexx's senior director of talent management.

But Brad Norris, vice president of Norris Inc., a 50-person alarm and communications dealer based in South Portland, recently made it company policy to Google every job applicant during the screening process. To Norris, it makes sense to use whatever tools are available to make sure the company hires the right person for the job. "Our people represent us and it's critical we get the right people," he says. "Anything you can do to find out more about that individual and how they respond to certain situations is part of the hiring process."

Rob Landry agrees. One of the first things Landry does when hiring someone at Pemaquid Communications, his Portland Web-design firm, is check for an online presence. That involves a Google search and, if the job applicant is young, a check on MySpace or Facebook to see if he or she has a profile. "It's just standard operating procedure at this point," Landry says. "People should be aware they have an online footprint and do what they can to manage that."

So far he's made no surprising discoveries that have doomed a candidate's chances. Internet searches have, however, confirmed what candidates have put on their resume. "So that gives me a certain level of comfort knowing that that person is being on the up and up," he says. "It's a form of fact checking."

According to HR professionals like Dacri, tech-savvy companies like Pemaquid Communications are often the first to use the Web to its full potential during the hiring process.

With Facebook and MySpace profiles often littered with photos showcasing the excesses of youth, that means a recruiter interested in a recent grad's qualifications as a financial planner might instead find more evidence supporting that person's ability to do keg stands. "What appears fun, cute or appropriate when you're a 20-year-old college student can be terribly different when trying to present yourself to a prospective employer," says Paul Myer, a professor at the University of Maine's Maine Business School in Orono.

Caught in the 'Net
You don't have to be a young, rowdy Facebook member to worry about the digital you. Even older, experienced workers have to worry about their Web trail. Edward McKersie, president of Portland-based staffing firm Pro Search Inc., says searching the Web isn't established policy, but can sometimes yield some interesting results. A Pro Search recruiter recently Googled an otherwise solid job applicant and discovered that a two-year stint supposedly spent consulting was actually spent in prison. "All that info shows up on the Internet, so this is no time to fudge the facts," McKersie says.

Still, there's no guarantee that what's posted on the Internet is accurate. If a recruiter does uncover something that raises red flags, "you have the obligation to go back to that person and talk to them about it," says Sue Murphy, manager of the National Human Resources Association in Nashua, N.H. "You can't go back to that person and say, 'We're not hiring you because of what we found on Facebook.'"

Indeed, Manpower's Clark worries about the ethical issues raised by poking around in digital dirt not related to work. When Googling a candidate or searching profiles on social networking sites, "the line could easily be crossed," Clark says. "We want to be very careful we treat applicants and candidates consistently and make decisions based on work-related information."

The legal world has not caught up with these virtual job referrals, according to Peter Bennett, a labor and employment lawyer and principal of The Bennett Law Firm in Portland. In general, employers have nothing to worry about when it comes to Googling a job candidate or combing social networking sites because all that info is in the public domain, he says. "It's really no different than searching any other source of information," says Bennett. "If anything, it should lead to a more informed hiring decision."

A legal problem could arise, however, if a job candidate were unlawfully discriminated against because of what is found on the Internet. "It still gets back to basics," says Dacri, the president of the Human Resources Association of Southern Maine. "You can't discriminate against an employee or candidate, but it doesn't mean you have to hire anyone if you find language or something incompatible with your existing workplace."

In fact, Bennett says there's a good legal reason why employers should Google job candidates: If an employer hires a person with a violent or criminal background and that employee commits a crime while on the job, the company could be liable, Bennett says. If that employer had simply Googled the candidate before the hire, the problem could have been avoided.

Sweeping your digital trail
The Internet does make it easier to dig up a person's digital dirt, but it can also help job seekers stand out from the crowd. (For more on this, see "Virtual control," below.) Carmen Tatis, another recent UMaine grad from Virginia, says she would love an employer to look at her MySpace or Facebook profiles because they include her resume. "Plus, it shows how I am out of work," she writes in an email. "It's not like I am wholesome, but I am careful not to post anything embarrassing online. I do admit that I like to have a good time, but I keep it within my friends. I don't see the need to post half-naked pictures of myself or others online."

Kevin Mitchell, a UMaine senior from Minot, doesn't take any chances with his online presence. He says he knows of one person who was fired by an employer last year for pictures found on his MySpace page. Now, Mitchell blocks access to his Facebook profile for all but those he designates as "friends," which means they have access to his private profile. He's also become a watchdog for his unscrupulous buddies. "I look out for them," says Mitchell. "If they have pictures that are provocative or inappropriate, I let them know it's not professional and they should think about not having that stuff on there."

Googling or Facebooking a job applicant may not be widespread at Maine companies at the moment, but it's probably only a matter of time, says Bob Montgomery-Rice, chief operating officer at Bangor Saving Bank, which recently began discussing whether to use such searches in its hiring and screening process. He doesn't know what kind of policy decision the bank will eventually make, but says "long-term we'll probably have to have some sort of position on this."

According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, only 11% of employers in 2006 said they would check social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace when considering a candidate for an entry-level job. But with millions of young people using these social networking sites every day — Facebook alone has 30 million accounts, and MySpace has more than 100 million accounts — researching job applicants through their Facebook profile will most likely increase "as time moves on and more of the next generation becomes part of the process," Montgomery-Rice says.

Websites like ZoomInfo, which combs the Web for an individual's professional info and collects it all in one place, and LinkedIn, a social networking site geared towards professionals, already have been appropriated by the corporate world for recruiting purposes. And Facebook, which allows people to create work-specific networks, includes networks of employees of The Jackson Laboratory (99 members), Bangor Savings Bank (15 members), and several other Maine businesses such as Bar Harbor Bancshares, MEMIC, Bath Iron Works and the Maine Turnpike Authority.

Kevin Mitchell's employer, UMaine's Campus Recreation Dept., has its own Facebook network. The result? Even though Mitchell has his Facebook page set to private, he still has to be careful of what he posts because his boss also has a Facebook page and is "friends" with him. "When I edit stuff on my page that's one thing I think about," Mitchell says. "If my boss were to look at this, would she agree with what I have up here?"