So, How Will My Digital Footprint Affect Me as an International Teacher?

 All images in this post are screen shots from the infographic I made.


During this class I have been much about our online footprints the impact it has on job applicants when looking for a new job.

When I was reading the articles, I thought they were interesting, but I kept wondering what the hiring process of international schools looked like.

I went to my own headmaster and informally asked him what he does during the hiring process. While we were talking he said that he would be willing to send the survey out to other headmasters.

I got responses from 15 headmasters, headmistresses, or principals. See the survey results here on infogr.am.

Question 1

Do you perform an Internet/Google search about potential applicants during the hiring process?

The responses to question 1 surprised me. I assumed that everyone would "Google" an applicant during the hiring process.

After reviewing the results of this first question, I wondered if I should have asked that the survey go out to the person in charge of hiring. Maybe the two who answered no to this question don't do the hiring for their schools. Maybe they rely on references or they call the schools the teachers are coming from.

Question 2

If you answered yes to question 1, how long do you spend on researching applicants in such ways?

The responses here were what I had expected. School leaders are busy people and spend less than 30 minutes doing Internet background checks.



Question 3

Do you use Social Media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, etc.) to find additional information about applicants during the hiring process?

I expected that everyone would be looking at Social Media sites during the interview process. It is faster to just do a Google Search though.



Question 4

If you use Social Media, which sites do you gather information from?

 

This is another question where the results were not as I had expected. 11 of the 15 respondents said they looked at Social Media sites. I thought it would have been 100%. The breakdown was unexpected for me as well. I thought Twitter would be much higher, but it only got one vote.

1. Linkedin - 9
2. Facebook - 8
3. Google+ - 2
4. Twitter - 1
5. Pinterest - 0
6. Other - 0

One headmaster had this answer to Question 4:

No, I don't [look on Social Media when reviewing an applicant], Google is a search engine so I use that. Social sites are personal so I don't dig.

If I had the chance to ask a followup question to that answer, I would ask if looking on Social Media meant specifically going to a site to look someone up, or if this included those in a Google search result as well.



Question 5

Have you found information that has positively or negatively impacted the result of your applicant search when using Social Media?

 

This question was to see what kind of information was found about applicants. The three options were:

• I have found information that supported the applicant positively.
• I have found both positive and negative information about applicants.
• I have tried, but have failed to find any information at all.

Question 6

If you failed to find any information at all, does that negatively impact your feelings about the applicant?

Seven of the 15 respondents answered this question. All seven said that it does not negatively affect someone to have no online presence at all. This did surprise me. I assumed people might think those without an online presence had something to hide.



Summary

• All though I had only 15 responses to the survey, it represents more than half of the schools that it was sent to and it was a bigger response than I had expected.
• Before I sent this survey out, I had assumed that background checks using the Internet was more common among schools than it has shown to be.
• I really thought that having no online presence would be thought of as a negative, but this group disagrees with me.
• I am surprised only one headmaster looks at a teacher's presence on Twitter. I think it should be more popular than it seems to be [with these heads surveyed]. Twitter is a great resource for information.
• Writing surveys is challenging. I proofread this one about three times, and I can still see things I would do differently next time.
• Making a nice infographic is also really hard. I spent too much time trying to make my own before finding the website infogr.am where I simply needed to insert my data.
• It's a good idea to be smart when you post anything online and regularly check your own digital footprint because people are looking.