If you use Facebook, you likely heard the news last week of yet another update to the social network – the social graph. It’s Facebook’s venture into the search space and it’s encouraging users to spend more time digging into their connections and those of their friends. Consider it people search, and given the millions of users on Facebook, it’s a pretty comprehensive directory of individuals, their interests, locations, and more.
If you’re a security-cleared professional and especially one looking for a job, it should also scare you a bit – it’s now easier than ever for recruiters and hiring managers to use Facebook to screen applicants, and you’d best be sure they like what they find.
Many will argue that Facebook’s social graph is a good thing for job seekers, like this contributor at Huffington Post. And while that’s true if your industry is marketing or communications, if you’re an engineer with a TS/SCI and full scope poly the reality is a certain level of discretion is expected. The social graph will reveal to searchers in your network which restaurants you’ve liked, the places you’ve visited and those embarrassing photos from college you thought no one would ever pull up because they were so far down your ‘timeline.’
Career networking is powerful. Many recruiters and hiring managers will take advantage of the social graph to both search for skillsets within their existing network as well as to screen candidates they’ve identified through job boards or career fairs. That makes Facebook more than a social network, it makes it an information database that can be accessed by those you know…and perhaps those you don’t.
Now, I’m not trying to instill fear in your cleared, job seeking heart. I’m on Facebook – and I have no plans to leave and am not particularly concerned about the social graph affecting my career potential or security clearance status. But, that’s because I’m well aware that any piece of information I post is potentially a public post, with the potential to be viewed and shared by individuals within my network to those outside of it.
The social graph may power further extensions of the network as a job search tool, but unlike the Huffington Post article suggests I’d argue that if you’re a cleared job seeker it is not a good idea to start considering Facebook as a professional networking profile. In fact, I’d consider it a good time to delete that information from your profile. Does Facebook need to know that you’re a cyber engineer at the NSA? No. Does Facebook need to know that you commute to Fort Belvoir for work every day? No. Spear phishing and data mining are easily enough accomplished – don’t make it even easier by making the data explicit – and now very searchable – on your Facebook profile.
Facebook is still a great place for me to complain about my least favorite sports teams and share pictures of my cat, but the social graph hasn’t made it a good place for my cleared job search. There’s no need for cleared professionals to go running from the platform, but it is a good idea to stay on top of privacy changes – like the social graph – and be an educated poster.
Lindy Kyzer is the editor of ClearanceJobs.com. She loves cybersecurity, social media, and the U.S. military. Have a conference, tip, or story idea to share? Email editor@clearancejobs.com.
