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More than one-third of employers are snooping social networking sites before hiring a candidate.
Attention jobseekers: You probably want to clean up your Twitter feed, lock down your Facebook profile and gussy up your LinkedIn page.
There is a good chance your prospective employer is snooping around about you on social networking sites.
A new survey from CareerBuilder finds that 37 percent of human resource managers are using social networking sites to research potential job candidates, and another 11 percent plan to start.
What’s more, they’re using social media to make hiring decisions.
About one-third of hiring managers who are using social networking sites to screen candidates say they didn’t hire someone because they found something online that raised an issue about the candidate. The most common red flags were inappropriate or provocative photos or information, or something about the candidate drinking or using drugs.
The findings don’t mean you should shutter your social media life completely. A good social strategy could land you a job.
A little less than one-third of respondents said they had found something on social media that caused them to hire the candidate. Those hiring managers said social media gave them a good feel for the candidate’s personality, conveyed a professional image and supported the qualifications they had been given.
CareerBuilder surveyed about 2,000 hiring managers and human resources professionals for the study.
The findings come as more companies are getting aggressive about screening candidates via social networking, even going so far as to demand a candidate’s Facebook password. The state of Maryland recently became the first to ban that practice.
In the CareerBuilder survey, 15 percent of respondents said their employers prohibited using social media to screen candidates.
The issue is coming up with current employees too. A Library of Congress employee recently accused his employer of firing him after learning via Facebook that he was gay.
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This is just an overwhelming shift in American culture to take away the last little bit of work/life balance in favor of cradle to grave slavery. Capital owns labor, and it was never supposed to be that way.
I speak of my affinity for drinking and my far left political views quite openly on Twitter, yet I hold a corporate position at a Fortune 100 company despite how those two sides of me conflict. Yes, it holds me back at times when some ignorant recruiter values my personal politics over my ability to set those aside and work my ass off, but life isn't one big job interview. To hell with anyone who passes me over based on my personal life despite my professional life.
Life's too short to give this much to the company. When I leave the office, I leave work behind.
Amen. The matrix is real yet most of the slaves are not aware.
have 2 pages like i do, my fun page with friends and @!$%# i dont want my job or anyone but my friends seeing thats locked down and unsearchable due to incorrect name spelling town age etc. and a public one with your grandma on it basically create what they want to see. i have a few friends and we are all on as other people on the public account saying good things etc about you.
Why would anyone post personal things on the Internet for everyone to see? Unless you want everybody to know your business.
I'm 58 yrs. & work for a large retail company. Before technology & Fed. background check, all a company could do is review resume, call previous employer, schools attended & maybe 1 or 2 personal contacts. I'm against companies checking social media accounts, BUT I understand their point. If it means getting hired, clean up your personal pages & share your password. Here is what the company wants from you: no drug use, no police record, no lawsuits against you, a high credit score, no major debt issues, no pictures of you drinking or smoking AND NO FRIENDS who use drugs or booze, or have other issues like debt, lawsuits, etc. Think about it this way: Why should company XYZ provide you health insurance if it will cost them extra $$$ if you don't take care of your health? Also, can this company trust you with confidential information? They will be paying you a salary & don't want you to take company information to FB. Think about this when you're being interviewed.
I can't tell if you're being satirical or serious. Facebook has issued a statement that they will purse legal action against employers asking for passwords to accounts on their site.
I believe this is the fault of FaceBook requiring real names.
I suspect the fact I have NO footprint outside of these GHX blogs would make me unsavory as no one wants to hire a ghost.
Then again I am self employed. My credit report is locked and I could care less what some employer wants to see.
I think people complaining about employers trying to perform due dilligence is not realistic - here's the deal: any decent company that cares even minutely about the quality of their employees will use every legal means possible to find the best and weed out the bad.
Forcing you to share your passwords probably is against the law, if not - it should be. If you want to use social-media sites, learn how the site works so you can "protect" your "privacy".
Finally, by now, if you don't know the consequenses of posting something anywhere on the internet, you probably shouldn't bother discussing such things.
My name is OneAM, and I approve of this message :)
Except "weed out the bad" actually means "judge personal lives and only hire people that like the same church and politicians as me."
Personal and professional are two separate parts of life.
There is NO Employer anywhere who OWNS me, never was, never will be and I won't play into that game, never have never will ~ ! I'm there to do 1 thing and 1 thing only, help them because they need the help, and thats it ! I don't run their personel or business life and they are NOT going to run my personel or my business life either . Nor will I submit to stooping so low and being Naive as to just hand over my Stupid FACEBOOK profile information & password , for which I don't and Never have had in the 1st place, because I'm just NOT stupid enough or Naive enough to play into that Stupid FACEBOOK Games or Twitter or any other dumb stupid Social media type Ignorance ! Thats stuff is for the Naive, Dumb & Stupid who play into that mentality ~ ! I only work because I want to, NOT because I have to, and for the last 30 years of my working life, I've set myself up just for that so I'm NOT dependent on any of these Companies to supposedly support me, or hopefully keep me employeed. I've stayed out of Debt, and didn't live beyond my means and never was a Credit Junkie and stayed out of trouble. I seen wayyy back in the Early 1980's just how things were going to be and decided back then, I'm NOT going to be like the rest of the Sheep and just follow to be following because thats what everybody else does, well I didn't want to be like everybody else or the rest of the Flock of Sheep, so I took a different turn and did things differently than the rest of you or I should say the Majority of you, and I'm quite content and Happy and have enough financial reserves stashed away and NOT in some phony stock market or phony investment fund or Bogus 401K,,, that I could go the next 25 years without working for these Big Shady Corporate Employers and become 1 of their Brainless Zombies at their beck & call. The rest of you should try the same, you might actually enjoy life a bit more and be more relaxed and content !
You seem anything but relaxed, content and enjoying life. With your bold print, it comes across as if you are about to bust a blood vessel because everyone does not live as you have nor had a crystal ball in the 80's. You basically labeled everyone with a job as a Brainless Zombie.
There are numerous employers and not every one of them is 'Big Shady Corporate'. Just like individuals, every company is different.
My advice to you is to use some of your accumulated reserves and seek some professional mental help.
It's like any big change -- some people worry about what can go wrong; others make the most of what can go right. In my new e-book, "Becoming a Rare Find," I document ways to show your career strengths via Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Quora and even Pinterest. Used effectively, these tools can help employers identify you as someone they should be hiring.
So basically do not engage in ANY REAL personal stuff online, just consider it your advertisement! Nice and commercial. I love it!