It’s no secret that your social networking site can be your own worst enemy if it’s filled with inappropriate photos from your bachelorette party or fraternity initiation. However, Reppler, a company that will get rid of all the dirt in your profile for you, conducted a survey that shows just how influential your social networking sites really are when job searching.
A whopping 91 per cent of employers will check out your social networking sites during the hiring process and about 47 per cent will get right to it as soon as you turn in an application. The most frequently checked sites are Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
An alarming 69 per cent of those employers have actually rejected a job candidate because of something they saw on their social networking site. (Note: Remove Halloween pics of slutty school girl costume when applying for teaching job at a Catholic school.)
The main reasons those candidates got rejected were because they lied about their qualifications, posted inappropriate photos (no surprise there), demonstrated poor communication skills (we know you only get 140 characters, but use punctuation!), posted negative comments about a previous employer or just posted inappropriate comments.
Now, the good news is that your profile can also work in your favour if an employer likes what he or she sees. 68 per cent actually reported hiring someone because of what they saw on a profile.
The main reasons those lucky social networkers landed a job is because they gave a positive impression of their personality or organizational fit, their profile supported their professional qualifications or their profile showed they were creative.
So no need to deactivate your accounts — just think of them more like a resumé because you can pretty much count on a future employer stalking you just as much as your ex does.
