What’s Your Name? What do you want it to be baby?

My recent post regarding the problems that social networking sites like MySpace are creating for job candidates shows that there is definitely a large divide between those that say the issue is overblown and those that say – “write only what it is OK for grandma to see”, otherwise it may come back to bite you.

I was in a client meeting on Friday where I met a new client that is hilarious and also writing a book. I told her that she should start a blog to connect with other writers and she said, “No, way – I may want to run for government office one day, so I CAN’T have a blog.” She is funny, smart and was not joking.

I came across a great post over at the Recruitment Views blog (hat tip to Evolving Ideas) that cites research showing that:

Lying, exaggerating or trying to be someone else is par for the course for most people when attending job interviews. Research conducted on behalf of world leader in workplace assessment, SHL revealed that over half (57%) of the population think it acceptable to either lie, exaggerate or withhold negative information during the recruitment process. Just under half (41%), also admit to trying to ‘work the interview’ by acting like the sort of person they think the company wants rather than who they really are.

The more that is at stake, the more a candidate, especially a high-earner, is likely to cheat. SHL’s research reveals that the justification for dishonesty grows with desire. In fact, 70% of those who would do something dishonest said they would only do so if what they wanted was ‘very important.’

I find this cultural fear that someone might see us with our pants down, and society’s willingness to punish us for it alarming. Steven at CollegeRecruiter.com just put up a terrific post illustrating this fear and punishment at work (great comment by Maureen Sharib as well).

Maybe we should just stop this whole MySpace thing and just start using our technology to create a Gattaca-like “perfect” society and “perfect workforce”.