Can Facebook hurt your job prospects?
You have a bullet-proof resume, stellar references, and you just aced the interview with the HR manager for the job you really, really want to get. But you don’t get it.
Who knew that sharing would come back to bite you and leave a huge black mark on your job application? After all, we all grew up being reminded over and over that sharing is a good thing.
Well, it turns out some companies are now using social networking sites to check out job candidates. And social media has made it easier than ever for big brother to keep tabs on us.
According to a study conducted by Careerbuilder.com, 22% of 31,000 employers surveyed said they search social networks to screen candidates. And one-third of those said they found information on sites like Facebook and MySpace that eliminated candidates from consideration.
Have a look at the top areas of concern those employers found on social networking sites:
• Information about alcohol or drug use (41% of managers said this was a top concern)
• Inappropriate photos or information posted on a candidate’s page (40%)
• Poor communication skills (29%)
• Bad-mouthing of former employers or fellow employees (28%)
• Inaccurate qualifications (27%)
• Unprofessional screen names (22%)
• Notes showing links to criminal behavior (21%)
• Confidential information about past employers (19%)
Maybe posting those pics of your latest inebriated romp showing you in a, well, compromised state, wasn’t such a good idea?
Universities and colleges have become aware about the new practice and are now counseling students to be more cautious. Northwestern University in Chicago started over a year ago after one career services staffer was baffled why an outstanding student with a GPA above 3.7 couldn’t get an internship interview. When questioned, the employer simply said, “Have a look at her Facebook.”
The CareerBuilder.com study found that employers in the media, professional services and finance industries were most likely to go online to check out candidates’ profiles with more than 35% admitting to the practice. Among the least likely were charity and retail industries, with just 8% and 7% of companies respectively going on sites like Facebook to check out applicants.
No question, it’s an unsettling feeling to know you might be the subject of spying. I don’t even like the idea of people I know spying on me let alone virtual strangers.
Yet it’s hard to be outraged. Privacy and the net are hardly compatible. It might feel like spying, but at the same time, we’ve kind of flung open the doors to our homes and told the paparazzi to leave their telephoto lenses behind. You want to get up close and personal? C’mon in — we’ll make it totally easy for you!
And how many people have you invited into your virtual home that you don’t know terribly well? I know people with 200 to 300 friends on their Facebook, and chances are, there are more than a few unknowns about some of them.
So as companies start to use social networking sites to screen candidates, could we see a reverse trend in the amount that we choose to share? Could the notion of boundaries become a bit more, uh, fashionable? (At the very least, it’s a good idea to ensure you’re taking full advantage of privacy settings to ensure a “friends only” policy. But don’t be mistaken that’s it’s full protection. Privacy and the web are like birth control – nothing is 100 percent.)