Be Careful Of Facebook When You begin Job Seeking
Facebook And Job Seeking...
It is estimated that over 80% of employers conduct
background checks on potential candidates that they are looking to hire, and
some of these background checks now include social media checks on Facebook,
LinkedIn and Twitter accounts. Almost everyone is on Facebook these days, and
while it’s great for your personal life and for keeping in contact with friends
and acquaintances, I am finding that it is becoming more and more detrimental
to candidates’ job searches.
Companies conduct background checks in order to try to paint
an accurate picture of who you really are and to avoid negligent hiring. They
want to hire people they can trust to represent the company, and what better
way to find out about “the real you” than through social media sites.
Facebook is an interesting (and free) way for employers to
check up on you. Not only can they see your basic information, but they can
also see your photos and what you discuss with other people on your wall. They
can see what networks you belong to and even where you work. For the most part,
companies don’t care about how you spend your free time – as long as it’s
legal. What they are looking for are racist remarks (not only by you, but also
by people who post on your page), sexually explicit photos or videos, and flagrant
displays of illegal activity. Any signs of these will raise red flags to anyone
performing your background check, and this can hinder your chances at securing
your job.
You don’t need to panic and start deleting all of your
photos and wall posts right away… especially if you don’t think you have
anything to worry about. To start with, what you can do is check – and
frequently recheck – your privacy settings on these sites. You might think that
your privacy settings are all turned on, but the truth is that many social
media sites update and reset these settings on a regular basis, and you might
not even know that yours have accidentally been switched off.
The most important thing you can do is be more aware of what
you have on your social media sites and go from there. Go through your photos
(yes, even from those college days) as you never know what you might find. Are
there “questionable” photos of you? Are there inappropriate remarks somewhere
on your page that might be taken the wrong way? If you have to think about it,
un-tag yourself or delete it…it’s not worth the risk.
© RedStarResume Publications – http://www.redstarresume.com
#1 for Student Resume and Graduate Resumes