Recently I was contacted by a local company that had located me online somehow, whether through Facebook or Twitter, I’m not sure. They wanted me to interview for a web development position. The position was pretty similar to my current one and I wasn’t really looking to move, but I agreed to interview. If nothing else, it would be good practice.
Shortly after that I got a request from their recruiting director to link to my Linked In page. I wasn’t sure what to do, because I would basically be agreeing to a frisking. But, the information there might make me look even better as a candidate. So I reluctantly let her in.
The interview seemed to go well but it became pretty apparent that it was “been there, done that” for me, and I wasn’t really interested. Perhaps picking up on that, they did not offer me the job. No big deal.
But, now I had an unwanted contact on my Linked In page, and only after the fact did I realize what I had done. Not only did I let her see my profile, I let her mine my network, which has lots of IT people in it. In other words, I helped her find alternatives to me for the position she was trying to fill. Even if my contacts weren’t right for the job, their contacts might be. In essence, I may have inadvertently made it easier for her not to hire me. I didn’t really want the job — this time. But what if it had been a job I did want?
I haven’t booted her off yet, but I’m thinking about it. The way they brushed me off could have been nicer (no need to go into details) so I don’t see myself ever being interested in working there. But it was a valuable learning experience. The next time I will handle this sort of thing differently. I won’t reject or ignore an add request from a recruiter thinking about hiring me, but what I will do is hide my contacts before I accept. And only after the interview process is over, and I’ve either been hired or deleted the recruiter from my page, will I display them again.
Our professional networks, acquired over years of work experience, are valuable assets. Social networking makes it very easy for us to surrender our assets for free. We must always be vigilant and aware of what we’re doing.
