Reviewing others on Unvarnished

On the new site Unvarnished, your personal and professional reputation is up for review. Unvarnished gives an opportunity for anyone to post their “review” of you as a person. Unvarnished could definitely be useful, but it could also end up being a pain to handle. In the end, we can only hope that Unvarnished doesn’t become a reason for banks to deny you the best personal loan rates.

Using Unvarnished as reputation management

Individuals are asked to post “unvarnished” reviews of one another. The claim of Unvarnished is that it will help you “manage your career growth”. Any user can create a profile or post their review. Unvarnished uses Facebook profiles to “verify” user’s identities. When the link to Facebook seems more legitimate, but faking out a payday loan company is harder than faking out Facebook.

Unvarnished isn’t without problems

The problem with Unvarnished will most likely be something similar to other review websites. A review website could be incredibly helpful in making decisions. At the same time, there are two sides to every review. Unvarnished claims to have a “community” system that will help keep bad reviews in check. The simple reality of Unvarnished is that unhappy people are more likely to speak out than unhappy people. This means that Unvarnished could present an unvarnished – if very skewed – view of you.

Should your profile go Unvarnished?

Yes, reviews on Unvarnished could be very skewed. And yes, Unvarnished could provide a real pain some days. However, within the end, most professionals and businesspeople would do well to get an Unvarnished account. If nothing else, knowing what others are saying about you is important – especially if it is negative. An Unvarnished account will allow you to see and reply to feedback others have. No matter where you work, your online reputation is becoming as important as your reputation anywhere else.