Company Fishing

one of the aspects of the web that has impacted the job market is that if you are seeking a job, then you should be aware of what you have put up online.

today's marketwatch.com has an article about why companies should be careful about trawling for data on prospective employees:

Various studies suggest that upwards of 40% of employers have trolled Facebook and other social networking sites for information on potential hires -- and that when they find negative information on these sites, more than 80% of the employers factor that information into their hiring decisions.

now they go to list four aspects that u.s. companies need to be aware of but there are a couple of really salient points:

one: finding out information such as gender or ethnic background which could negatively impact the perception of the applicant to the seeking company.

well, at the end of the day - from a prospective employee's position, i am not sure i would want to work for a company that took things like that into consideration in the first place. it's illegal in both canada and in the u.s as well.

but, the sad truth is that there are still a lot of racists in powerful positions so from a blogger/job seeker - that fact is not all too relevant to me. if the company doesn't want to hire me because of my gender or ethnic background or political views - then i wouldn't want to work for them in the first place.

two: trawling facebook is, at best, a grey area in terms of legitimate background checking.

from my perspective - that's not such a big deal. i don't blog about anything other than my takes on how technology impacts my life, i blog sometimes about machinima (a hobby) and i have been blogging fairly regularly over at ibankcoin.com about my take on the stock markets.

now that last bit, is where i actually would prefer a prospective employer would pay very close attention to what i blog because here is my position:

• i like taking on challenges and solving hard problems.
  
• i also try to be as cognizant of the "big picture" as it relates to business as i can be.
  
• finally, i am willing to entertain "out of the box solutions" to the hard problems out there. case in point, would be my use of genetic algorithms and ID3 to find tradeable edges in the u.s. stock market.
  

i use an unorthodox style for my blog here - personally, in my private correspondance - i think that capitalization of letters is, well redundant. however, on my ibankcoin.com posts - i use upper and lower case lettering and ensure that my sentences and paragraphs follow a logical order.

that's because, really - if you are are a prospective employer and you found this blog because it was at the tail end of my signature, then i would hope that you find me to be a relestlessly creative type who enjoys solving problems and does not have any interest in being a drone that shows up and 9 and punches out at 5.

case in point, look how much time i spent on my ibankcoin.com posts - i was "King of the Peanuts" and blogged every day just about in december 2008 where i not only commented on the state of the markets but, i also presented ideas for trading solutions discovered using machine learning techniques.

if that's the kind of person you want - then you know how to reach me.

if it's not - rest assured, i probably don't want to work for you.

cheers.