5 ms·

The hiring process is a negotiation between two sides. The more information you have, the better you'll do. It's not fair for an employer to look in your priv

by scscsc 17y ago

The hiring process is a negotiation between two sides. The more information you have, the better you'll do. It's not fair for an employer to look in your private life; any more than it is fair for the potential employee to look at confidential company data. How would you like that? The company is hiding information, thereby cheating you into a job.

nostrademons 17y ago
Many companies I've interviewed at have shared confidential company data with me so that I have more information to make my decision. # of shares outstanding, expected future rounds of funding, development practices, upcoming projects I might be working on. Information in negotiations works two ways: oftentimes, it's prudent to release a bit of information as a signaling device, because it shows that you're confident the information will work in your favor.
tptacek 17y ago
It stopped being "your private life" when you published it.
- raganwald 17y ago
  But it didn't stop being your personal life.
  - tptacek 17y ago
    And? The word "personal" is pretty subjective. It's a personal detail that I know the words to several Death Cab For Cutie songs. An embarassing personal detail, at that. But it is not unlawful for a company to not hire me over it.
    - raganwald 17y ago
      Dude, you have your ethics, I'll have mine. Let's not split hairs. If a company wants to hire or not hire you as a programmer over the type of music you like, I don't want to work there and I don't care how they found out. Can I be any more clear than that?
      - tptacek 17y ago
        Hey, raganwald, you jumped on my comment, not the other way around. I said, "it's not public if you publish it". You said, "it's personal, though". I'm not sure the hair-splitting card is in your hand to play.
    - scscsc 17y ago
      Triple negation in the last sentence really helps with understanding. That being said, you should probably keep embarrassing personal details to yourself (and maybe your friends). Why would you want the company to know the embarrassing thing (since it doesn't affect work performance significantly)?
      - tptacek 17y ago
        I agree with you completely. If I wanted to get self-righteous about being passed over for a job for knowing the words to "Title and Registration", I lost my leg to stand on when I posted it here.
- sethg 17y ago
  I think it's a positive good that the Internet allows me to hear about the private lives of people who are otherwise (and may forever be) strangers to me. If for example I was struggling with depression or alcoholism or some other issue that I didn't want known to the public, it might help me to read blogs by other people who are dealing with the same problems. In order for such communication to happen, though, people need to feel free to publish private stuff anonymously and rely on a social norm that discourages potential employers from snooping.
  - tptacek 17y ago
    Here you have conflated the concept of "private" with the concept of "personal", and then built an argument on the resulting misconception. It stops being private when you publish it to the world. It doesn't stop being personal. Some public, personal details cannot lawfully be considered in a hiring decision. But most can. It is your responsibility to guard your privacy. It isn't your prospective employer's.
- yhgfrtygbh 17y ago
  You go to church without wearing a disguise - that doesn't allow somebody to not hire you because of it.
  - tptacek 17y ago
    No, because religion is one of the six(?) things you're explicitly not allowed to discriminate based on. Musical taste isn't.
- scscsc 17y ago
  I didn't publish it. I merely shared it with friends. The publishing was simply a side effect (the information society equivalent of pollution, as Bruce Schneier puts it).
byrneseyeview 17y ago
It's not fair for an employer to look in your private life; any more than it is fair for the potential employee to look at confidential company data. Every time I interview for a job, I try to find out information from the company, particularly information they don't want released. Maybe I'm weird, but I get burned less because of it.

by scscsc 17y ago

nostrademons 17y ago

Many companies I've interviewed at have shared confidential company data with me so that I have more information to make my decision. # of shares outstanding, expected future rounds of funding, development practices, upcoming projects I might be working on. Information in negotiations works two ways: oftentimes, it's prudent to release a bit of information as a signaling device, because it shows that you're confident the information will work in your favor.

tptacek 17y ago

It stopped being "your private life" when you published it.

raganwald 17y ago
But it didn't stop being your personal life.
- tptacek 17y ago
  And? The word "personal" is pretty subjective. It's a personal detail that I know the words to several Death Cab For Cutie songs. An embarassing personal detail, at that. But it is not unlawful for a company to not hire me over it.
  - raganwald 17y ago
    Dude, you have your ethics, I'll have mine. Let's not split hairs. If a company wants to hire or not hire you as a programmer over the type of music you like, I don't want to work there and I don't care how they found out. Can I be any more clear than that?
    - tptacek 17y ago
      Hey, raganwald, you jumped on my comment, not the other way around. I said, "it's not public if you publish it". You said, "it's personal, though". I'm not sure the hair-splitting card is in your hand to play.
  - scscsc 17y ago
    Triple negation in the last sentence really helps with understanding. That being said, you should probably keep embarrassing personal details to yourself (and maybe your friends). Why would you want the company to know the embarrassing thing (since it doesn't affect work performance significantly)?
    - tptacek 17y ago
      I agree with you completely. If I wanted to get self-righteous about being passed over for a job for knowing the words to "Title and Registration", I lost my leg to stand on when I posted it here.
sethg 17y ago
I think it's a positive good that the Internet allows me to hear about the private lives of people who are otherwise (and may forever be) strangers to me. If for example I was struggling with depression or alcoholism or some other issue that I didn't want known to the public, it might help me to read blogs by other people who are dealing with the same problems. In order for such communication to happen, though, people need to feel free to publish private stuff anonymously and rely on a social norm that discourages potential employers from snooping.
- tptacek 17y ago
  Here you have conflated the concept of "private" with the concept of "personal", and then built an argument on the resulting misconception. It stops being private when you publish it to the world. It doesn't stop being personal. Some public, personal details cannot lawfully be considered in a hiring decision. But most can. It is your responsibility to guard your privacy. It isn't your prospective employer's.
yhgfrtygbh 17y ago
You go to church without wearing a disguise - that doesn't allow somebody to not hire you because of it.
- tptacek 17y ago
  No, because religion is one of the six(?) things you're explicitly not allowed to discriminate based on. Musical taste isn't.
scscsc 17y ago
I didn't publish it. I merely shared it with friends. The publishing was simply a side effect (the information society equivalent of pollution, as Bruce Schneier puts it).

byrneseyeview 17y ago

It's not fair for an employer to look in your private life; any more than it is fair for the potential employee to look at confidential company data. Every time I interview for a job, I try to find out information from the company, particularly information they don't want released. Maybe I'm weird, but I get burned less because of it.