I recently received an invitation to connect to a friend on MyLife.com. I’ve gotten these before, and I always politely refuse them, since I focus my social network connections on LinkedIn and Facebook.

My friend wrote back to say that he hadn’t sent me that invitation – but wait, this is only the start of the story…

It turns out – if this Wikipedia article is correct – that ZoomInfo feeds contact info on business-related signups to their associate MyLife. In itself, that’s a slimy thing to do, but it doesn’t end there.

If you sign up at MyLife, they are going to ask you if you’d like to upload your contacts to them to try to find other friends. If you do, they will start spamming your contacts without even asking your permission. Here’s a quote from an article in the Los Angeles Times (Reunion.com is now MyLife.com):

West L.A. resident Elaine Schmidt experienced Reunion.com’s aggressive marketing for herself when she received an e-mail the other day that appeared to be from a longtime acquaintance.

It said: “Hi, I looked for you on Reunion.com, the largest people search service — but you weren’t there.” The e-mail instructed her to click on a link to see who else has been searching for her.

Curious to see if her acquaintance had left a message, Schmidt, 44, clicked on the link and found herself at Reunion.com’s site, where she was prompted to register so she could see who’d been searching for her.

As part of the process, she submitted her name, gender, e-mail address, birth date and ZIP Code.

Then Schmidt came to a page saying that “we’ll find your friends and family who are already members and also automatically invite any nonmembers to join (it’s free!).” It instructed her to enter the password for her Yahoo e-mail account.

“I thought I was just signing up to read my friend’s message,” Schmidt said. “At no time did I think I was authorizing them to access my online address book.”

Within minutes, though, she started getting e-mails from friends and colleagues asking why she was searching for them on Reunion.com.

I recommend ZoomInfo in my presentations, and I’ll continue to do that – simply because they have information on about 50 million people, and the site is still used by many headhunters. And also because the info they have is often wrong. So it’s important for you to go there and claim your identity (search for yourself, and when you get the results hit the “that’s me” button).

Here’s a link to a page on ZoomInfo that explains how they get their information and how you can request that they remove your listing – but I think it’s better to correct your information than to de-list yourself.

But beware! I suggest avoiding MyLife.com.

And let me give you a general suggestion: don’t upload your contacts to any site. You may have seen this option in LinkedIn and similar sites – but I really don’t recommend that you use these services for the simple reason that you lose control of your data that way. I find it’s always better to enter your connections one at a time. MyLife is not the only site that uses this slimy practice – Plaxo was once well known for doing the same thing.

If you get an email that looks like it comes from somebody you know – saying that they tried to find you somewhere but couldn’t – email them privately and ask if they really sent that invitation. It will help alert your friends that they are inadvertently spamming you.

For the original article, read it here at Wally’s Follies.

Mostly, Walt writes about personal branding – especially how it impacts job seekers. But he also writes about things he’s seen during his career, which started with the birth of microcomputers.

In some cases, telephone interviews are a way for employers to “pre-screen” possible job candidates before they are granted an in-person interview. In other cases, employers will conduct the full interview over the phone. Whether you are required to go through a pre-screening or have already been given the interview, you must be more prepared than you would be for an in-person interview, even if you are allowed to interview in your PJ’s. Below are some telephone interview tips to keep in mind so your next phone interview is a success.

Telephone Interview Tips:

1. Use a landline.You don’t want to risk having problems with cell phone service. It is irritating for employers to conduct interviews if the call breaks up frequently or is dropped completely. If you don’t have a land line at home, just make sure you are in an area with as much cell phone service as possible. Do what you can so the process runs as smooth as possible.
2. Keep your materials handy. In fact, lay everything out in front of you. This includes your resume, notes about your career objective (even if it isn’t included in your original cover letter it’s a good idea to have this out depending on the questions he will ask you), a pen and pad of paper for note-taking and anything else you think may be helpful during your interview. Because you won’t have to schlep into an office, you can have anything out in front of you to aid with your success.
3. Steer clear of distractions. Find a quiet place to interview and stay there! There shouldn’t be any noise in the background to distract you or your potential employer. However, it is understandable that this can be tricky if you have young children at home who need your attention. When you set up your interview appointment, try to schedule it for as precise a time or window as possible. That way, you are able to avoid possible distractions (ex.: your phone interview is between 4 and 4:30, so no one can have company over during that time, the kids are fed and occupied or a sitter will watch them, if need be.)
4. Speak slowly and clearly. When you speak to people face-to-face, you are able to understand what they are saying more clearly because you can see their mouth move. So in a way, you are reading their lips! Neither you nor your potential employer will be able to do this over the phone of course, so speak clearly and a little bit more slowly than you would if you were talking to this person in person. If you can’t hear him, drop hints that he isn’t speaking clearly or loud enough by politely asking him to repeat himself. If this makes you uncomfortable at all you can always blame it on your phone: “I’m really sorry, it’s hard to hear you, the volume on my phone just won’t go up!”
5. Remember – you can’t be seen. That means that anything you say cannot be interpreted by your body language. Beware of  jokes or sarcastic remarks that would have been harmless had he seen your facial expression. Maintain your professionalism; stay on target with the interview topics and focus on the key information about you that will get you hired.
6. No eating, drinking or chewing gum! This is self-explanatory. But, we humans are creatures of habit and might pop a potato chip in our mouths at just the wrong moment. However, when I say no eating or drinking I mean during the phone interview. You should eat beforehand to get your brain going so you can focus.
7. Prepare questions ahead of time. Just like in a personal interview, prepare a few questions to ask your potential employer at the end of your phone interview. Some examples are:

“What does a typical day look like for an employee with this job?”

“What are some skills I would need to develop in order to excel in the position I’m applying for?”

“What software/equipment would I be using?”

Remember – do not ask about salary or benefits until the employer has brought it up.

Fortunately, it can be less intimidating interviewing over the phone with these telephone interview tips and you may even feel more confident that you’ll do well. Great! As long as you are fully prepared and take the necessary precautions, there is no reason why you shouldn’t have a successful phone interview.

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Brand-Yourself.com is a platform to diagnose, manage and monitor your online reputation for career success. Did you know that 83% of employers use the web to research job applicants? If you’re ready to proactively control your Google results and get hired, rather than cut from the applicant pool, try us for free and start controlling how you’re perceived online. Go ahead. Take our tools for a spin.

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Adrienne is a Syracuse University student from Danbury, CT majoring in Writing and Rhetoric with a Leadership Communication minor. She is a big fan of impressionist art, ocean views and classic rock. She hopes to one day have her name in the credits of a hit film whether behind the scenes or in front of the camera.

Another case of how someone’s Facebook account got them fired.

This is first of a long trail of increasingly inappropriate comments that Lee Landor, who worked for a politician in NY, left on Facebook. She  “resigned” effective immediately within a day of the comments.

Now there are a few things to be learned from this:

1. Don’t use Facebook or any other social networks while working unless it is part of your job description. It can be hard to resist the urge but you’re getting paid to fulfill your responsibilities and not talk to friends. A good quote from the article below:

Dick Dadey, the executive director of Citizens Union, a good-government group, said ‘Landor’s comments were inappropriate because they were made on government time and with government resources.’ Dadey added that ‘allowing government employees, especially those involved in representing elected officials to the public, to comment on political issues on personal websites made it difficult to discern official policy from private opinion.’

2.  There are certain things that you should and shouldn’t do when it comes to social media.

• Hate speech
• Showing drug use
• Commission of any other crimes
• Nudity
• Egregious swearing

She broke three of these rules (see the her full remarks here) during work, on government computers – which can be traced.

3. Horror stories like this spread like wildfire online, scarring personal brands forever. I doubt Lee will ever get a job working in politics again. I guarantee her Google results will only get worse as the story spreads.

Everyone always jokes and thinks that things online through social networks will never come back to haunt them. Everything online is public and permanent. If your profile settings aren’t set properly anyone can see what you say and do. She deleted her Facebook account the day after that slew of comments, but they were already immortalized in screenshots, which will undoubtedly plague her forever.

Just a friendly reminder to be careful!

Trace Cohen is a rising senior at Syracuse University and bleeds orange! He is double-majoring in Entrepreneurship and Marketing. Trace has always been fascinated with technology and how stuff works. Once he gets his hands on a new gadget, rest assured it will be taken apart and put back together in a matter of minutes. Trace is a hands-on kind of guy whose first love was video games, which he loves to this day.

There’s a strange chilling effect with social media users these days. With so many people looking for work, no one wants to write or post anything that might hurt their chances at their next interview. Not posting pictures of your last sushi night out with your friends, where you did all those saké bombers and wound up in the street in your underwear pretending to be a bullfighter and swinging your pants at oncoming traffic… that’s definitely something no hiring manager wants to see.

What about something more innocent? Should you write about your political beliefs? Music you hate? Post pictures of your last hunting trip, or a vacation video taken of you in a bathing suit?

What is the line between something that could be bad for you, and simply sharing something from your life?

Know the Line

Rather than simply being paranoid and not posting anything, think about whether or not what you are going to say or show is really negative. Is it anything that falls into this quick list:

1. Hate speech
2. Showing drug use
3. Commission of any other crimes
4. Nudity
5. Egregious swearing

Not surprisingly, these are the big ones that you should always avoid posting publicly. The easy rule of thumb here is keep your social media life as PG-13 as possible. The first four are painfully obvious, but perhaps number 5 isn’t.

If you are always swearing when you post, this not only gives the impression that you may speak this way normally, but that you aren’t smart enough to come up with other words on your own. (And if you knew what “egregious” meant, this probably isn’t the case.)

If you do post this kind of content on your social network profiles, by all means hide them – don’t use your real name, and DO NOT share them in places where an employer will read them. Most people are finally aware of how much damage sharing information like this about themselves in public can be for them, so if this is at all true for you, just detach yourself from these profiles before you even submit that next resume.

The Troublesome Subtleties

Well that’s easy enough not to do – but what about political opinions, or even opinions about the industry you work in?

For the most part, you should never have to censor your real beliefs on these subjects. The first is that if everything you post is edited and sanitized, you won’t have any more fun. The reason for that Facebook or Twitter account is to share something about you. The fact of the matter is, if you don’t get an interview because of an honest opinion, you don’t want to be working at that company anyway. If your honest opinions really are in conflict with the culture of the company you are applying to, it really is for the best if you don’t get the call – not just for them, but for you as well.

Also, your opinions on your industry, while they may not be what everyone else says, shows that you have an intuitive understanding of the subject matter, and can come up with outside-the-box analysis. If the general consensus is that Home Loan A is a great product, and you can share reasons why it isn’t, the right hiring manager can learn that you not only know about the home loan industry, but that you can think for yourself. If the company does not want employees who can think beyond what they’re told about a product, you probably don’t want to work there either. Generally speaking, the ability to think independently is considered a virtue, and can actually help you.

Frequency

Oddly enough, while so many are worried about what they post, there isn’t the same kind of warning about how often you post. It can definitely work against you if you are posting to Twitter and Facebook and Linkedin twice an hour all day. If you are unemployed and have oodles of free time on your hands, you might be doing just that.

What a hiring manager sees, however, is someone addicted to social networking. They may conclude that, if hired, you will spend an inordinate amount of time continuing to post messages and photos and comments.

What Kind of Company Do You Want to Work For?

Don’t think I’m being insensitive when I suggest you don’t want to work for a company that doesn’t want you. We are definitely in an employer’s job market these days, and there are many candidates for them to choose from. Dealing with pleasing potential employers by not posting anything at all, however, can hurt more than help.

I have always maintained that if you are worried about what you do on line coming back to haunt you, you should distance your real life from your social networks. If it is too late for that, consider keeping two kinds of profiles – the fun one that cannot come back to you, and the professional one that you don’t mind employers seeing.

This issue ultimately comes down to controlling what others can learn about you. Given the amount of use social networks receive, it’s rather like learning that employers are listening in on your phone conversations too – so watch what you say.

The difference is that phone conversations really are private, and what you do on social media is not only public, but everyone knows that it’s public. Anything you are ashamed to share shouldn’t be shared – but anything else you should simply be prepared to stand by, and possibly even defend.

Your social networking footprint is a representation of who you are, and the best way for hiring managers to get to know you before an interview. While it is smart to hide the embarrassing stuff, don’t be ashamed to show people the rest.