Several recent surveys conducted by CareerBuilder.com have brought to light the severity of this problem for candidates who, perhaps, are unaware of how far reaching potential employers’ checks on the suitability of potential employees now are.
The rise of this “Social Media snooping” has it’s roots in a few different areas including employers becoming more savvy in terms of the type of person they wish to employ and also the fact that the recent recession has made the recruitment market place overcrowded; the knock on effect of which, is that, employers can now afford to be exceptionally picky when taking on new personnel.
As you can see from the headline figures below, there are now a large amount of companies who will use this type of pre-screening and, unfortunately, it will only increase with time.
The Social Media sites most commonly used to check up on candidates are, unsurprisingly, also the most well-known, with Facebook and LinkedIn leading the pack. Whilst it is common sense not to place unprofessional images or posts on LinkedIn it is the other forms of social media where the problems can arise. Unless your Facebook page profile is locked down to “friends only” then that hung-over post about not bothering with work today is seriously going to hamper your career goals.
The best way to avoid losing out on your dream job is, obviously, not to post anything incriminating on any site ever, but if living a monk like online existence is not for you then consider the most searched for activities, which are listed below, as no go areas.
Of course the other side of the coin is that if your online profile shows no sign of untoward behaviour then this can be a real help to you chances. The main reasons companies will take the time to check up on you are as follows.
Although a much rarer occurrence there is always the chance that a potential employers search on your Facebook page will lead to them seeing you in a much more favourable light. The figures below show that it is possible for you Social Media accounts to help you get the job you want.
To conclude, as mentioned earlier in this piece, Companies who are hiring are only ever going to increase their searches of Social Media as time progresses; so holding back on posting anything you wouldn’t want your Grandmother to see is probably the safest thing if you are looking at your next career move.
