According to research by recruitment company
Oilandgaspeople.com, employers now routinely vet social media profiles to find,
or reject, potential candidates. The pretty comprehensive survey of 7,000 firms
found that over 80 per cent have looked up candidates’ social media output and
64 per cent had rejected applicants as a result of what they found.
This is backed up by research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development which shows that two in five employers look at candidates’ social media activity and most won’t bother to tell you, either.
This is backed up by research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development which shows that two in five employers look at candidates’ social media activity and most won’t bother to tell you, either.
I suppose there are two ways of looking at this development.
I’m sure some of you are confident that your Facebook, Twitter, Vine and Flickr
accounts will boost your employment prospects. I know of several Facebook pages
which are practically works of art: their owners are funny, creative types who
do not hide their light under a bushel, so to speak.
But if you are like me,
this may not be the case at all: a quick look at my Facebook account reveals a
discussion about the benefits of chocolate covered coffee beans to try and stay
awake, followed by an exchange about how terrifying it is to fly to Glasgow in
a turbo-prop plane, complete with my friends’ helpfully graphic descriptions of
how sick they were when they did something similar. Hmmm. This may not be the impression I’d hope
to give to potential recruiters if I was on the job hunt.
The CEO of Oilandgaspeople.com says that “Social media is
now a powerful recruitment tool for getting the right person in position faster
and cheaper than traditional forms of advertising.” I suggest that if you are applying for a job, you might want to tidy up your social media accounts for a while. Just saying...
