Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Tweet Responsibly

In keeping with Blogging for Michigan's Twitter Tuesday theme, I thought I'd remind everyone to tweet responsibly, or risk having this happen to you.
A recent tweet by one would-be Cisco employee proves that when it comes to placing a permanent black mark on your resume via the Internet, Twitter is now the tool of choice. To illustrate, here’s the tweet the now Web-infamous "theconnor" shared with the world:

"Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.”

It wasn’t long before Tim Levad, a "channel partner advocate" for Cisco Alert, shared this open response:

"Who is the hiring manager. I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web."
"Theconnor" immediately set his Twitter account to private and deleted all information from his home page, but the damage was already done. He story spread like wildfire across Twitter, web sleuths discovered his true identity, and thanks to Google Cache, his homepage resurfaced on a web site erected in his honor - CiscoFatty.com.

It still hasn't been determined if "theconnor" was allowed to keep his job. Hopefully, Cisco gave him the benefit of the doubt, like our country did when Pete Hoekstra compromised security by tweeting this back in February.
"Moved into green zone by helicopter Iraqi flag now over palace. Headed to new US embassy Appears calmer less chaotic than previous here."
Pete kept his job, but you might not be so lucky, so stick to tweeting about twits like Sen. Shelby and leave your comments about your employer off the Web.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I eschew the tweeting. I already waste too much time on this crap, under a pseudonym so the 'tards find it a bit tougher to harrass me this time around.

Kathy said...

Jolly, I hear you! This stuff can be a time waster, eh? I don't bother tweeting either, but I do find it useful to follow some sites that point me to articles I've missed and stuff like that.