Some of those tweets or Facebook posts job seekers thought were clever or provocative a few years — or days — ago are coming back to haunt them.
A survey released Thursday (May 14) from CareerBuilder.ca shows 49% of employers are researching candidates on social media, while nearly one-third (30%) have uncovered reasons not to hire potential employees based on what they find.
“If you are looking for a job, you really need to stop and look at all your social media sites, including Googling yourself, and figure out if there’s anything you would not want a potential employer to see and make sure you fix that or make it private before you go out there and start submitting resumes,” said Mike Erwin, a senior career advisor at CareerBuilder.
The most common reason employers gave for nixing a candidate based on what they discovered on social networking sites was posts featuring job seekers drinking or using drugs (35%). This was followed by candidates who posted inappropriate photos or information (32%), demonstrated poor communications skills in their posts (28%) and those who bad-mouthed former employers online (28%).
The least common reason for crossing off a candidate from the list of potential hires was for posting too frequently (16%).
But Erwin noted the survey results show more employers have found something that made them hire the person than found something that made them not hire the person.
Nearly one-third (32%) of employers said they found reasons to hire candidates based on what they saw from them on social media sites.
The most common reasons include candidates appearing well-rounded (44%), background information supporting qualifications (43%) and displays of creativity (41%).
“That really shows that there is a shift here and people are using social media to their advantage and they’re really highlighting their work, and their ability to do work and employers are really starting to take note,” Erwin said.
“Social media itself as really evolved. I think that people realize that it’s not the scary beast that it was years ago.”
