I just came across an article today released from CareerBuilder that said more employers were finding reasons NOT to hire folks because of what they found on their social profiles. Interesting……
It’s important to note (and we are very pro-social here at Discovering Social) that while your social media profile can be a great asset in your job search, this new study shows it can also end up costing you the job.
The findings report that more than two in five (43 percent) hiring managers who currently research candidates via social media said they have found information that has caused them not to hire a candidate, up 9 percentage points from last year (Something I keep telling my own kid).
It also shared that today, nearly two in five companies (39 percent) use social networking sites to research job candidates, and that is up from 37 percent from last year.
Let’s take a deeper look at what the survey revealed and what caused them NOT to hire because of social:
- Candidate posted provocative/inappropriate photos/info – 50 percent
- There was info about candidate drinking or using drugs – 48 percent
- Candidate bad mouthed previous employer – 33 percent
- Candidate had poor communication skills – 30 percent
- Candidate made discriminatory comments related to race, gender, religion, etc. – 28 percent
- Candidate lied about qualifications – 24 percent
And with anything else we have other hiring managers that said they found things that made a candidate more attractive or solidified the decision to extend a job offer after viewing them online or running a search. In fact, one in five hiring managers (19 percent) said they found something that caused them to hire a candidate. Let’s look at these:
- Candidate conveyed a professional image – 57 percent
- Got a good feel for candidate’s personality – 50 percent
- Candidate was well-rounded, showed a wide range of interests – 50 percent
- Candidate’s background information supported professional qualifications – 49 percent
- Candidate was creative – 46 percent
- Great communication skills – 43 percent
- Other people posted great references about the candidate – 38 percent
The research suggests that hiring managers are using social media to get a glimpse at the candidate’s behavior and personality outside of the interview, and are most interested in professional presentation and how the candidate would fit with the company culture.
Here at Discovering Social, we’re helping you with best tips, best practices and advice on how to use social media in your job search. It’s so important that you keep your social profiles clean, professional with a little personality (you can still have fun), change your privacy settings, but most importantly keep in mind that most everything you post online is there forever. It can be found.
Why take a risk?
Source: www.sacbee.com/2013/06/26/5524776/more-employers-finding-reasons.html