I am in shock about a situation that I found out about yesterday. Tuesday I was over visiting some friends. He had just been laid off from MSFT, and we were talking about his online profiles. He has a lot of business interests beyond technology, and has many of them listed on his LinkedIn profile and some of them are very confusing to potential recruiters/employers. My suggestion was to create a separate profile for his non-tech/employment interests.
So, he did so. Updated his MSFT profile to reflect his last day of employment (which was Monday), and then shut down his non-tech business info.
The result? Almost immediately he got a call from American Express (Amex) asking him what his income was?
I was stunned when I spoke to his wife about this and suggested that he contact Amex directly make sure it wasn’t a scam.
They did so, and not only was it a legit call, *Amex confirmed they have people monitoring LinkedIn and other networking sites for employment verification purposes.*
The implications are staggering, especially from an HR perspective, and legally. Employment verification is a key component in the hiring process.
In addition to the obvious question about the ethicality of using something like LinkedIn for the aforementioned purpose, I also question the use of resources in this respect.
I applaud them for keeping their employees "busy", but I wonder what sort of message this sends from a corporate culture standpoint? What sort of training and mentality is this breeding in their employees?
Much to ponder in this Big Brother scenario; makes me glad I don’t use Amex.