Bing & CareerBuilder Are Watching You

Launched with little fanfare and a miniscule budget (see video below), Microsoft's new search engine Bing and CareerBuilder have teamed up (using the Bing API) to bring you Applicant Explorer. Designed to give an employer more information about a job candidate, the app mines data that is available across the Web. That means that all of your forum postings, personal Websites, Press releases, blogs, and newspaper articles can come back to haunt you. (I realize they can help you too!)

From a recruiting/employer perspective, Applicant Explorer is a great tool, culling from hundreds of data sources to paint a complete picture of an applicant.

From an employee perspective, it could be a nightmare.

We've warned you before and we will warn you again. Watch those tweets, control those pictures and think about making yourself scarce online.  From political views to the music you like; favorite foods to sexual orientation - the more data HR has about you, the more likely you will NOT get hired. It's the law of averages.

Applicant Explorer is free to employers who use CareerBuilder’s Resume Database service.

From the press release:

Careerbuilder.com announced the availability of Applicant Explorer, a new application built on the Bing API that helps recruiters find qualified candidates in the fraction of the time it once took. Rather than manually sorting through applicant resumes and then searching the web for additional information to fill out a candidate profile, Applicant Explorer uses the Bing API to supplement CareerBuilder’s resume database with online results from public sites including social networking sites, blogs, corporate websites and forums.

Comments

[Joe]

Bing is actually a "decision" engine - that's why it's very good.

[Bonnie]

Re: "Watch those tweets, control those pictures and think about making yourself scarce online. From political views to the music you like; favorite foods to sexual orientation - the more data HR has about you, the more likely you will NOT get hired." I agree and disagree.

Whether a potential employer finding what you've been doing online is a good thing or a bad thing obviously depends on what you've been doing online. As you point out, things like political views, music, dumb-ass photos and other stuff that can be construed as unprofessional or show bad judgment should definitely be avoided. But if you know what you're doing, creating a positive and professional online presence could make you stand out among a zillion blah candidates, especially for particularly competitive positions.

But I do agree with you... Applicant Explorer is going to be very bad news for many job seekers!

[Executive Careers Blogger]

I haven't tried Bing yet but I am looking forward to Bing becoming a verb

[liidkkaa]

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[San]

Applicant explorer will only tell the employers more of the prospective employees...which is not great news for the latter...
FindAJobAlready.com is advertiser-supported and free for all with no-fee job posting for employers and no-fee resume posting for workers.

[jdrek]

Thsi is helpful.

Regards
http://www.elarn.com/

[KRRK]

Good article and a nice feature. The key is though all the information is given to the recruiter, it is left to them as to how they use it and used by others who are interviewing the person. It can become an information overload.

Regards,
http://www.jobsbyref.com