Don't be stupid, people. You're trying to get a job this year.
Med students oversharing on Facebook
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2 comments:
So what if people post pictures of themselves having fun? What they do on their own time is their business, right? What does it have to do with their job?
If your job is not in medicine, sure, I think your argument holds. What do I care if my banker gets drunk on the weekend? But your boss is still going to care. Hence this story: http://www.connectedinternet.co.uk/2007/11/13/bank-intern-busted-on-facebook/ (and other iterations of it).
Anyone applying for a job should be aware of what the Internet can tell potential employers about them. I'm applying for residency this year, and I don't want anyone to see pictures of me puking at a party, and have it affect their perception of me as a candidate for a serious job. Is it my private time and business? Sure. Am I going to be the one to not get into residency because of it just so I can sue and prove a point? Nope. I've got better things to be doing with my time, so why not just be better safe than sorry? I think that holds for anyone applying for a job.
There is an argument to be made, though, that physicians are held to higher standards (not that they should be, necessarily, but that they are by many people). Of course there's nothing wrong with being a cross-dresser, and even doing it in public at a party and having photos taken. But if you wouldn't want those photos to be printed in the newspaper for everyone (meaning your patients) to see, why are you so eager to let them be on Facebook? At least change your privacy controls so private stuff stays private -- and of course that still doesn't offer any guarantees.
Something that has been brought up before is the issue of physicians smoking. Someone wrote about seeing her doctor standing at a bus stop smoking a cigarette, and it shocked her. Of course there are doctors that smoke, and they have a choice to make when it comes to what they tell their patients to do (be hypocrites or just stay quiet about it). But the fact is that patients expect certain behaviors from their doctors, and it's just not good business sense for a doctor to advertise differently.
Yeah, I don't care if my classmates binge drink or smoke on their own time, but I would be taken aback if they freely advertised it all over Facebook, especially if I were thinking about hiring them. It's just common sense.
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