Should what you post online impact your job opportunities?
Something a bit different this week. A bit of a moral quandary, you could say. (Quandaray is a great word & one we should all try to use more IMO)
So, picture this.
It’s late, you’re on YouTube, and no one’s judging you for it. You’ve earned the scroll. One video turns into three, and then suddenly, there they are.
A familiar face. Someone you’ve met before. Maybe, even someone you’ve interviewed 😱
But this isn’t a video they’ve made. They’re not pitching an idea or promoting themselves. They happen to be in it, caught mid-discussion, filmed at an event and part of someone else’s content entirely.
And as you watch them talk, argue, or perform, something tilts in your head. You start to see them differently. Not as the polished version who turned up to the interview, but as the unscripted, unfiltered version of themselves.
And now you’re wondering, “Does this change how I feel about them professionally?”
Because technically, this isn’t a background check. But maybe it’s not not one either. What if they also happened to be going through an interview process with your company at that moment in time?
We live in a time where almost everyone leaves a trail: public posts, podcast clips, comments, videos and so on. Each fragment, harmless on its own, builds a picture that can feel impossible to ignore if you’re in hiring.
But should we look?
If it’s public, it’s fair game, right? That’s the easy argument. Content at your fingertips. But context has teeth; it can clarify or distort.
So what happens when the version we find online doesn’t match the one we met in person? When we see behaviour that feels off, or values that don’t fit the company?
Is that fair judgment? And I’m genuinely interested in your thoughts
We know there are protected attributes we can’t touch. But what about visible behaviour? What about the grey areas or the conduct that isn’t illegal but still makes us pause?
If you saw a candidate behaving aggressively at a protest, would it change your view, even if you shared their beliefs? If you saw them mocking others online, would you still see them as a credible leader?
Or maybe we’re all just editing our own highlight reels, each post, each comment, each selfie carefully tuned to whatever audience we think is watching.
And I’m not one for advocating that we go looking for things or dirt on people, but some people may have a different opinion.
Does what we post, or what others post about us, change how we’re perceived? Should it?
And if it does, should we care?
This week’s issue is sponsored by Noon AI, an AI agent that “handles all the tedious parts of recruiting”
In truth, Noon is a sourcing engine that allows you to build sourcing projects for different roles, in a similar manner to LinkedIn Recruiter. However, the parameters or criteria that you build allow the platform to suggest potential profile matches and in turn learn based on your responses to those profiles.
I do like the simple dashboard that gives me the high-level detail of open and response rates. This allows you to A/B test messaging very simply.
When it comes to outbound messaging, the ability to build sequences is great. If you’ve used an email campaign or sales tool like Apollo or something similar, then this will feel very familiar and simple to use. The whole platform is pretty intuitive, and I was up and running with a live campaign in about 20 minutes, and most of that was providing feedback on profiles.
I think, regardless of the volume of roles you’re hiring for, this is something that could supercharge your outbound efforts. The team are easy to deal with and have been really helpful with all my questions so hit up Dean Griffin for a demo or a chat if you want to find out more.
Before you go, can you help me out?
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Simon
