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Is Your Social Media Profile Screwing Up Your Job Search?

SungardAS

By Te-Erika Patterson

More than 1 billion people use Facebook actively each month while Twitter’s 255 million users manage to send out 500 million tweets each and every day. With stats like these there is no doubt that at some point, most individuals have created a “cyber footprint” by commenting, sharing, or posting about their personal and business lives on social media.

All of this chatter can really tell you something about an individual. At least, that’s what hiring managers and employers believe. Hiring managers and employers are following potential employees’ cyber footprints to get a brief, yet conclusive, look into their personality. The personalities portrayed in these cyber footprints frequently affect an individual’s ability to be hired for a job.

Think your social media profile is for your friends and family only? Think again. It may be impacting your job prospects.

Most people don’t think about the ramifications of proudly boasting about their wild night in Cancun or venting about the latest political controversy because they don’t think anyone too important is watching, but they are oh-so-incorrect. All of us are being judged.

By whom? By anyone we meet who has access to the Internet - including our future bosses. What are employers looking for when they begin their informal “internet personality assessments” (IPAs) designed to form a quick opinion of us even before they meet us in person?

According to David Reischer, founder of LegalAdvice.com, employers who research their potential hires can do so legally under due diligence within the limits of the law. Reischer says that when a potential new hire is under consideration, the human resources team will conduct their research beginning with the most popular social media platforms. On Facebook and Instagram, employers tend to look at the “appropriateness” of content and pictures. While examining photos they are mostly determining judgment and character. They also pay special attention to the time that the posts appear (are they during work hours, for example?).

Personal blogs are also fair game for the scrutiny of human resources, according to Reischer. On personal blogs, employers tend to evaluate the appropriateness of content and pictures, along with strong opinions that lead one way or another. Much like your most feared high school English instructor, investigators combing through a candidate’s personal blog pays special attention to grammar, punctuation, and communications - tying these skills into a candidate’s ability to communicate effectively and professionally in the workplace.

There are certain red flags that would cause a job candidate to be disqualified immediately, according to Reischer. “Red flags we look for are crimes, negative comments about previous jobs or unethical behavior that could affect the work place,” Reischer notes. “The review is to determine whether any online behavior provides insight into how the person may behave once in the workplace. Cursing is okay, but excessive cursing is not. An online presence that is argumentative is also worth noting. It’s not any single act but rather a pattern of behavior. A pattern of obscenity or persistent expressions of an uncivil nature or other moral character failings is not just a momentary mistake of judgment. These red flags are sufficient reason to not hire a candidate.”

Although technically LinkedIn is a place where employees represent themselves professionally, Kathleen Steffey of Naviga Business Services says that employers use LinkedIn to cross examine the content of a person’s resume against their LinkedIn profile for accuracy and honesty and the photo they select to go alongside their social media profiles can be the deciding factor.

“Evaluating a person’s professional picture is also done all the time from employers,” Steffey shares. “Candidates really need to make sure that they are dressed professionally and groomed, especially if you’re in the B2B business world.”

At this point, you’re probably doing a mental social-media-life review, thinking back on those emotional nights at home in front of the computer after downing a few too many glasses of wine. You’re probably wondering if what you shared on those nights will come back to haunt you. Fear not, every hiring manager in business isn’t as tough as Steffey and Reischer. In fact, Simon Slade, CEO and co-founder of Affilorama has a more laid-back approach to hiring candidates.

"A job candidate's skills are my foremost priority,” Slade says. “I always check the candidate's Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn profiles, and as long as the content isn't criminal, racist or outright offensive, I usually give the applicant the benefit of the doubt. If there are a few old pictures of the candidate inebriated or doing something idiotic, I tend not to be too concerned - we were all young once."

Young or old, David Ryan Polgar, a Digital Lifestyle Expert, does not advise cautious Internet users to shy away from social media to protect their reputations. In fact, Polgar believes that having no social media presence is an even bigger red flag than posting a picture of yourself wearing a pair of beer goggles.

“Some employers find the very lack of a robust digital footprint to be a red flag,” Polgar comments. “In addition, if there is negative content online about you, it is recommended to overwhelm the bad with a flood of positive content.”

Whether you believe you are being watched, or if you just want to remain employable, it is still probably best to hold back just a little during your social media “play time.” If you write it, they will read it. Your social media profile has now become your new résumé.

Te-Erika Patterson is a journalist in Los Angeles. She is the creator of The Rebuild Your Life Project.