Current Events > 70% of employers are snooping candidates' social media profiles

(+) Yeah! (+)

57% of employers say that if they can't find a job candidate online they won't call for an interview.

3 in 10 employers pay someone to exclusively check candidates and monitor current employees social media. 70% screen.

34% have reprimanded or fired an employee based on content found online.

54% report that they find information in social media that cause a failure to hire or interview.

https://www.careerbuilder.com/advice/social-media-survey-2017
https://is.gd/8BCY0S (prnewswire article)

2017 data but still relevant today. What is your opinion on all of this? Should employers even be doing this? Do you manage yourself online in a way to lock out social networking discovery from your employer? Have you known anyone fired for social media use? Do you avoid posting ridiculous things?
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I don't have any social media accounts, I wonder if I will have a hard time finding a job after I separate from the military next year.
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None of my accounts have my actual name on them.
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Forlorn_Ass posted...

I don't have any social media accounts, I wonder if I will have a hard time finding a job after I separate from the military next year.

Make a LinkedIn at least.
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As long as they dont see my gamefaqs posts im good

they do this but if you don't have any social media you don't get hired
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Only 70%?
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Forlorn_Ass posted...

I don't have any social media accounts, I wonder if I will have a hard time finding a job after I separate from the military next year.

I hope not. Honestly the first stat in quotations about a majority of employers refusing to hire over not finding any social media concerns me a lot.
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I hire 60+ people a year and definitely check social media when available. I still will interview everyone qualified, and if they don't have anything I can find on social media, it does not deter my willingness to interview and hire them or not.
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I'm all for it. If the candidate is posting pics of him/her smoking weed and partying every night with captions like "DRINK IT LIKE WATER!" or "Smoke weed err day" I will not be giving them a call.
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Kombucha posted...

57% of employers say that if they can't find a job candidate online they won't call for an interview.

No wonder I never get calls when I'm looking.
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I just use LinkedIn.
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People with common names are fucked, I guess. If you google my name, you get dozens of people with the exact same name as me, even if I was active on any social media accounts you wouldn't find me.
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MabusIncarnate posted...

I hire 60+ people a year and definitely check social media when available. I still will interview everyone qualified, and if they don't have anything I can find on social media, it does not deter my willingness to interview and hire them or not.

SauI_Goodman posted...

I'm all for it. If the candidate is posting pics of him/her smoking weed and partying every night with captions like "DRINK IT LIKE WATER!" or "Smoke weed err day" I will not be giving them a call.

Congratulations you are both shooting yourselves in the foot

Kombucha posted...

34% have reprimanded or fired an employee based on content found online.

I got reprimanded recently because my wife posted a picture of me watching our babies for an hour while she went to the gym, during a day when I was working from home. Someone at work complained, I guess.

I'm not actually on the clock, btw. I'm on-call 24/7 and I work 80+ hours per week, often through the night. Heaven forbid someone catches me doing the groceries or spending an hour with my kids while the sun is out. To think that we all thought it was so un-cool when our parents were allowed to join Facebook... it's so much worse now that our employers are on it.
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Anyone who doesn't realise this is surely way too naive to be thrown into a professional environment.

Yes, of course a prospective employer is going to look at the information you give about yourself freely on the internet. Social media is like an extension of a candidate's CV only more honest. If they didn't check that stuff out it would be acting with deliberate ignorance on making an extremely expensive business decision. Caveat Emptor.
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I mean....kinda makes sense why they would do it at hiring. Hiring a mysoginistic pic or a girl that posts drama all day long could be a potential HR nightmare and you simply dont look good for a professional job.

That said, the numbers for firing and reprimanding are too high for my taste. Hope they were actual worthy causes.
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Not bring hired bc you dont appear online on social media

God forbid employers cant stalk ppl
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pinky0926 posted...

Anyone who doesn't realise this is surely way too naive to be thrown into a professional environment.

Yes, of course a prospective employer is going to look at the information you give about yourself freely on the internet. Social media is like an extension of a candidate's CV only more honest. If they didn't check that stuff out it would be acting with deliberate ignorance on making an extremely expensive business decision. Caveat Emptor.

Its still creepy and there are a lot people who can be extremely professional and restrained yet vastly different outside of work. And it often gets nuts what can get you fired. If you didnt do something outright criminal, cyber stalk a guest, proclaim all the Jews/blacks/other group must die or trash your work/boss openly not much they should fire you for. Who cares if you post trashy rap songs or like ecchi pages or whatever if your work performance and behavior is good?

In customer service some level of acting ability is pretty much required. Outside of work like half the customers attitudes would either have me flip out on that person or completely ignore them.

I just dont like the idea of workplaces spying on you and not hiring you for often petty reasons. Its another way for society to oppress and shin those with ideas, and interests that are not the norm or are the norm but people still get trashed for it anyways.

Its the general trend of modern society. Everything is online and EVERYTHING you ever did is used to judge you while everyone else enjoys the escuse to be outraged and make a big deal out of everything. So they can virtue signal and do things like You see this old Picture of jimmy John hunting? This man is literally Satan. Lets harass him and openly hope for and try to get his business closed thus putting tens of thousands of people out of a job because the CEO did/does a thing that humans have done for millennia

Because they want to feel like they are a good person and broadcast it to the world. Whatever happened to forgive and forget? Water under the bridge? PEOPLE CHANGE and mistakes are made. Society cannot function if every wrong is considered a unforgivable one.
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I remember being told six years ago by the interviewer that he was surprised to find no online presence of me. I still got a job offer, but I accepted one from a different company (not because of the stalking).
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I have a FB but I don't accept or give it to coworkers. It's strictly for close friends and family. I have about maybe over 200 friends.

I have an Instagram/Twitter/Snapchat to follow pornstars, and I don't use my real name.
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So, now people need at least two accounts:
Real name, clean for employers. Post wholesome activities here.
Nickname or something, for shitposting.
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That's a big question, and I'm not sure what you mean by 'should' employers be doing this.

Pragmatically, they probably shouldn't be for many positions. If you're hiring people to be a crew member at McDonalds, you're just not going to get the candidates if you screen them like that. What's the utility for you?

On the other hand, there are many positions where your social media presence might not only be relevant, but highly relevant. For the position I'm currently in, I had to sign a social media agreement that limits the topics I can discuss and how I can discuss them on social media. It makes sense, because my job is to convince legislators and executive branch officials to change policies or how they implement policies. If I have a long history of not supporting those policies, it tanks my credibility and makes my arguments useless, which would make me useless at my job.

So it just depends.

Now if you mean in a sense of ethics, I don't think it's unethical either.
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pikachupwnage posted...

pinky0926 posted...

Anyone who doesn't realise this is surely way too naive to be thrown into a professional environment.

Yes, of course a prospective employer is going to look at the information you give about yourself freely on the internet. Social media is like an extension of a candidate's CV only more honest. If they didn't check that stuff out it would be acting with deliberate ignorance on making an extremely expensive business decision. Caveat Emptor.

Its still creepy and there are a lot people who can be extremely professional and restrained yet vastly different outside of work. And it often gets nuts what can get you fired. If you didnt do something outright criminal, cyber stalk a guest, proclaim all the Jews/blacks/other group must die or trash your work/boss openly not much they should fire you for. Who cares if you post trashy rap songs or like ecchi pages or whatever if your work performance and behavior is good?

In customer service some level of acting ability is pretty much required. Outside of work like half the customers attitudes would either have me flip out on that person or completely ignore them.

I just dont like the idea of workplaces spying on you and not hiring you for often petty reasons. Its another way for society to oppress and shin those with ideas, and interests that are not the norm or are the norm but people still get trashed for it anyways.

Its the general trend of modern society. Everything is online and EVERYTHING you ever did is used to judge you while everyone else enjoys the escuse to be outraged and make a big deal out of everything. So they can virtue signal and do things like You see this old Picture of jimmy John hunting? This man is literally Satan. Lets harass him and openly hope for and try to get his business closed thus putting tens of thousands of people out of a job because the CEO did/does a thing that humans have done for millennia

Because they want to feel like they are a good person and broadcast it to the world. Whatever happened to forgive and forget? Water under the bridge? PEOPLE CHANGE and mistakes are made. Society cannot function if every wrong is considered a unforgivable one.

Your social media feed is not a secret spyglass drillhole into your bathroom window. It's a poster you put up on the street. Don't be surprised that people look at it and judge you for what they see.

I agree on you with much of your point btw, which is why I basically put nothing on social media. Certainly nothing that could be construed as salacious.
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This seems a bit like China's "social credit score" system, but with less repercussions for bad mouthing the government (although probably still some depending on your political leanings).

Then if you have no social media (no "credit") you cannot even apply for a job?

I dunno, that seems fucked. It's a path we pretty much don't want to go down, but it's already too late.
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pinky0926 posted...

Anyone who doesn't realise this is surely way too naive to be thrown into a professional environment.

This is my thought too. For the most part, it's just an example of poor judgement.

I hire a few people a year and always check. If they aren't mature/smart enough to realize it matters I don't want them working for me because I can't trust their judgment.
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Ultima Dragon posted...

This seems a bit like China's "social credit score" system, but with less repercussions for bad mouthing the government (although probably still some depending on your political leanings).

Then if you have no social media (no "credit") you cannot even apply for a job?

I dunno, that seems fucked. It's a path we pretty much don't want to go down, but it's already too late.

Yeah it's bullshit. Guess I'll have to update my Linkedin for the first time in 3 years and maybe start a dummy Facebook account, which I've never used before. Now it makes sense why I'm not getting many calls despite my plethora of experience.
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That's just stupid that they won't even looks at people without social media. At least they know they won't make the company look bad online since they won't be posting anything.
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i think a candidate's social media is extremely important. how can i trust an employee to edit spreadsheets and forward emails if i know they go out to a bar on the weekends??
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3 in 10 employers pay someone to exclusively check candidates and monitor current employees social media. 70% screen.

That sounds like an easy job.

Sign me up
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I have a question. How far back on someones feed would an employer check? I'm double checking instagram and facebook. Should I go back years?
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DarkProto05 posted...

I have a question. How far back on someones feed would an employer check? I'm double checking instagram and facebook. Should I go back years?

For me, if it's not set on private and I'm able to look at pictures beyond the profile it's a negative (not an automatic no).

The person is applying for a job and I expect them to have enough sense to clean up their social media while doing that. I want to hire someone that understands and accepts how the world works and thinks ahead about things like this because I expect them to do those same things at work (legal).
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Ah so setting it to private is best.
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The only social profile I have in my real name is LinkedIn, and there is absolutely nothing on it that can be used against me when it comes to job searching.
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Caution998 posted...

3 in 10 employers pay someone to exclusively check candidates and monitor current employees social media. 70% screen.

That sounds like an easy job.

Sign me up

This is like peak "bullshit" job.

Well paying blue collar trades and skills are automated, and replaced by worthless jobs like secretaries, HR, etc.

And nobody seems to care.

I remember when I had a bar tending job I was told I HAD to join their facebook group and accept the managers as friends so they could see me on it, and so I could see job rota's.

I didn't of course, and got a warning over it. But thankfully complaining to higher management got them to actually just post the rota's openly where we could see them and the warning removed.
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I keep my profile public but make a lot of posts private/only visible to certain friends.
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I'm friends with our office's recruiter. She definitely monitors the social networks of recruits. She said she doesn't care if a candidate has no social media presence, but she does look for public Facebook/Instagram/Twitter accounts and what they post.

I work at a CPA firm. My coworkers and I are all directly client facing and effectively the faces of the firm. And if you don't think the clients aren't also googling their auditors, tax people, or consultants, then you are crazy. We need to have the image of being mature, competent individuals and they want to make sure our online presence doesn't undermine that.

That being said, she doesn't care about people having pictures of drinking so long as they aren't like sloppy wasted pictures. Adults drink. People drink, often in excess, at our own office events. No one is worried about that. We just need to not look like we have a drinking problem.
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Serious Cat posted...

I keep my profile public but make a lot of posts private/only visible to certain friends.

This. If you know that employers are gonna look at your social media accounts, take advantage of that.

Just know how to maximize your privacy settings. Make public posts that make you look good. Employers will see those. Any other posts just make them "friends only" or "friends and friends of friends".

Try to limit your public posts to achievements you've made, interesting articles you might share, and other things that an employer might like to see about you.
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Kombucha posted...

57% of employers say that if they can't find a job candidate online they won't call for an interview.

Ok that's BS.
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I should create an account just to say that I don't smoke, love diversity, don't espouse controversial views, and I show up for work on time.

The last one would be a lie, but it'd help me get hired. I usually do a good job of showing up on time for the first 3 to 6 months of employment. <_<

this is why I don't understand people posting dumbass shit that they know is dumb shit under their real name
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Sir Will posted...

Kombucha posted...

57% of employers say that if they can't find a job candidate online they won't call for an interview.

Ok that's BS.

Social media has become such an ingrained and taken for granted aspect of our life now

So much that if you don't have one, it seems strange and contrarian. Like you don't have a social life. Your work qualifications aren't everything. You have to be able to function socially with the rest of your coworkers and superiors
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For the employers that wouldn't hire someone without social media accounts, I wonder how many of them are for skilled work versus lowpaying unskilled work. If I walked into an interview for a position as a senior developer and they raised concerns about my lack of social media presence I'd laugh and walk out.
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AlephZero posted...

For the employers that wouldn't hire someone without social media accounts, I wonder how many of them are for skilled work versus lowpaying unskilled work. If I walked into an interview for a position as a senior developer and they raised concerns about my lack of social media presence I'd laugh and walk out.

You wouldn't because apparently you won't even get a call without social media.
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For the people who don't want to have social media, just make a LinkedIn. You only need to update when you get new jobs. You don't need to make post. You really don't need to do anything with it but at least you'll exist.

That being said, I find it hard to believe that over half of employers consider not having a social media presence an auto-nope.
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I have a LinkedIn account that I log into whenever my job status changes. I don't even have a picture, pretty much just my work history.
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This is why I don't exist online

I don't have a Facebook but this got me thinking that if I did I would only have the most wholesome memes and emote vanilla mr. nice guy positivity.
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