Is social media hurting your job prospects?

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15 March 2012

In recent weeks we’ve written about the crisis in IT jobs from a number of angles. The situation, as it presents itself now, forks in two directions: a skills gap and the unwillingness of experienced professionals to move from stable jobs. This is good news for job hunters either retraining or upskilling to fill gaps in the workforce. If you have the specs on paper you have a good chance of getting an interview. Unfortunately you also face an unseen obstacle once you get to that stage: your social media presence.

According to a global study from Eurocom Worldwide, 20% of candidates failed in their job applications not through a bad interview, but their social media profile. That bosses snoop on their employees Facebook pages is common knowledge, but the same treatment to be afforded to candidates’ personal space can go against them at interview level is troubling.

Our own straw poll (it’s just to your left) illustrates the need for employers to take a refresher course in ethics. At time of writing over 60% of respondents said they checked candidates’ professional and personal profiles, as opposed to under a fifth who limited themselves to what the candidate presented of themselves professionally.

Why social networks should enter the recruitment process in the first place is odd. A plain old CV with the option to get verbal references from past employers is far more powerful than what you’ll find on LinkedIn, punctuated by paragraph from a client or contemporary written on a quid pro quo basis.

The logic behind checking personal profiles goes that candidates may have the skills but not the values to fit in with an organisation. There’s nothing wrong with being thorough, fact-checking a CV against publicly available information is prudent and people have been known to pad out their resumes but there the line in the sand must be drawn. Deliberately checking people out on Facebook where discourse is more laid back and personal, however, is tantamount to asking someone for their business card then showing up at their home address.

Beyond the salacious thrill of poking around someone else’s photo albums, reading their status updates and checking up on which Simpsons character they most closely resemble is of no relevance for assessing how they work in a team or the quality of their work. For that kind of information only a good CV, verbal references and, if a candidate is good enough to get further, a probationary period will do.

Sometimes the old methods are best, and less seedy.

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