More Employers Using Social Networking Profiles To Screen Candidates
Posted by anastasia on 09-11-2008Tuesday night a received an email via Facebook from a friend from college notifying me that I was tagged in a photo. As many of you on Facebook know, once you have been friended by a college or high school alum, you begin getting more requests from some folks you never thought you would hear from again. Of course Tuesday's photo of me was from a semester abroad when I was at Antioch — I was 21, smoking a cig and drinking a pint. The photo certainly brought back memories, made me laugh and then made me ask my friend to take it down. Since I speak to parents around the country about teens posting inappropriate photos or other content online, that photo could potentially damage my personal brand. And who knows, I may have to look for a job at some point again in the future…
I wanted to share that anecdote in the context of a story in today's Media Post about how many employers are actually looking at social networking profiles when screening candidates. When I was speaking to parents in Chicago, one of them confessed to me that they actually have a company in China that scours social networking sites to review potential candidates' profiles (i.e. is able to see "private" profiles). From the article:
A new CareerBuilder.com survey found that 22% of all hiring managers have combed through social media profiles to help evaluate potential hires, up from just 11% two years ago. HR execs from media and creative agencies like MediaVest and AKQA weighed in on the practice, identifying LinkedIn as their site of choice for new hire research…
…more than a third of employers that checked profiles said they had found content that disqualified a potential hire. The top three reasons for dismissal were that the person had posted info about themselves drinking or using drugs, posted inappropriate photographs, or showed that they had poor communication skills.
One more reason to talk to teens (and our own friends) about managing our online reputations.
Categorized under: Campus, Web
September 12th, 2008 at 11:48 am
Received this note from a Ypulse reader. The article I linked to in my post also focuses on the positive aspects of leveraging social networks for getting jobs:
I was just reading your post about companies' using social networking sites for screening job applicants, and thought that you might be interested in the flip side of how social networks (esp. Facebook) can affect job search for young people.
Almost 2 months ago, I invited my readers to participate in an experiment where they would target employers that they want to work for with Facebook ads. I had 5 college students who committed to working with me. They ran the ads and linked the ads to their resumes. The results were great, and they show that Facebook isn't all bad when it comes to job search.
You can find my write up here: http://www.onedayonejob.com/blog/use-facebook-ads-to-make-employers-hunt-you-down/
September 15th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
hi im 13 and il defenetly be careful before i put any old stuff on a socilal networking site.
September 21st, 2008 at 5:10 pm
As a Job Search Coach for executives and Technology leaders I was puzzled when I discovered an executive of my acquaintance was using Twitter to brag about his sexual exploits with very young women. I tell all my clients to use the social network sites as if their Mother's read them daily. That is the only way to prevent information you don't want shared from getting into the hands of people who can misuse or misunderstand it. Remebember, the casual comment you put on Facebook today, can circulate around the world for infinity.
September 21st, 2008 at 11:51 pm
[...] Facebook is huge, with over 100 million users. If you have teens in your home, like me, you'll want to monitor carefully your child's participation in such social networking sites. Also, tell him or her about unintended consequences of using such sites – as seen in this article. [...]
December 8th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
[...] in a lot of events and the topic of Facebook always comes up. Occasionally, employers will admit to using the site to screen candidates, though I have never heard an employer claim to use Facebook as part of their official recruitment [...]
January 27th, 2009 at 5:55 am
scary we are lernin about it in school
February 21st, 2009 at 12:26 pm
[...] in a lot of events and the topic of Facebook always comes up. Occasionally, employers will admit to using the site to screen candidates, though I have never heard an employer claim to use Facebook as part of their official recruitment [...]