Library Jobs and Facebook Cover Photos
by Ashley
Hey you! Have you ever sworn on Facebook? Do you thinkmaybe that’s why you didn’t get that job?
I don’t have Facebook anymore and I haven’t had it for a few months now (best decision I’ve ever made — not that this had much to compete with. I don’t make many good decisions). Not long before I deleted it, though, I changed my cover photo to this trendy shot my friend took of me reading Lean In, holding a bookmark that said “Read a Fucking Book.”
I thought it was clever and I was very proud of my bookmark. I got it at this co-op bookstore in downtown Seattle, where I bought more books than I had room in my suitcase and had to buy another duffel bag so I could cart them all home with me. But, anyway. Unbeknownst to me, this cover photo change was the topic of many a conversation around my parents’ and my grandparents’ dinner tables.
A month or so after the change, I got this email from my grandmother, who had been praying about it and felt like she really needed to tell me that I should change my offensive cover photo if I ever hoped to get a job. I thanked her for her concern, but kept the cover photo.
What do you think? Would you hire me for a librarian position in your library even if I had the cover photo in question?
I like to think of librarians as “cultured” and “open-minded” and “anti-censorship of any kind,” but do you think that something like a curse word on a Facebook profile would be enough to sway opinion in the eyes of an employer? I mean, feel free to say what you want since it’s not my cover photo anymore (and even if it were, I wouldn’t be offended — see, ‘open-minded’). Generally interested in your opinion here, so have at ‘er.
This brings up a lot of the discussion we’ve been having in the “Social Media in the News” section and makes it feel much more real. I would certainly hope that your profile photo would not effect your employment chances, but we have also seen examples of photos or comments taken out of context. There is definitely the ongoing problem of a lack of separation between professional and personal spaces on social media that can be problematic. It’s a good lesson to think before we post or comment online.
Absolutely! That was were I was going with this one. I mean, I think I would be more likely to hire someone if they had a cover photo such as the one I described, but I’m getting years ahead of myself here. Probably by the time I have enough experience to hire someone, Facebook will be as outdated at Myspace.