70% of hiring managers say they reject job applicants because of info they find online
The way we are perceived has never been more important as Big Brother casts its eerie eye over the unwitting jobseeker
If there was ever a doubt that those party pictures on Facebook can come back to haunt you, take a look at this statistic: 70 percent of hiring managers say they’ve decided not to hire an applicant because of information they’ve found online.
The data come from a survey of 1,200 human relations managers and consumers in the United States, Britain, Germany and France. Microsoft commissioned it last November.
Those surveyed said they almost all go online to research candidates to hire and think they are justified in doing so. Conversely, only 7 percent of consumers think recruiters check out potential candidates online in considering hiring decisions.
Recruiters said they search for information about candidates through search engines, on social networking sites, personal Web sites and blogs, gaming sites, online classified sites and through professional background checkers.
Simon Lewis, editor at digital recruitment advertiser, Only Marketing Jobs, comments: “It continues to astound me just how few jobseekers are aware of their personal brands. In an era when finding a job is as much about driving people to your profile as it is applying for jobs directly, where’s the sense in promoting the wrong message about you through inappropriate pictures and misleading personal details? It’s crazy. The Big Brother theory wasn’t vaulted by Mr Orwell. And whilst describing employers as being totalitarianism might be stretching the point, it should be conceded that – rightly or wrongly – employee/applicant surveillance is now much, much more than a 1984 theory.”
What kind of information prompts hiring mangers to reject a candidate?
– 58 percent say data on lifestyle
– 56 percent say inappropriate written text
– 55 percent say inappropriate photos
The report was released on International Privacy Day, which in Washington will be marked with a conference at the Newseum. Reputation Defender and privacy groups will discuss how legislators and regulators are responding to a growing push to address online privacy.
What do you think about employers choosing who to interview based on their social behaviour? Are employers wrong to do this or is the responsibility of the jobseeker to ensure their online profiles match their professional ambitions?
Original source: Cecilia Kang | The Washington Post
Additional comment: Simon Lewis | Editor | Only Marketing Jobs
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Its fundamentally wrong – See my blog for what i think about it as its the subject of my latest post. http://garethmjones.wordpress.com
What about all the decision makers (Predominantly gen x) who are now in those roles making the hiring decisions who themselves behaved in EXACTLY the same way (And still do perhaps) but who found their way into an organisation and up the corporate ladder before the onset of social media?
Just because the next generation bare their sole to their contacts online, instead of face to face, does not mean that we should all of a sudden jump on the judgemental bandwagon.
Do we really think that the hires we made in the past (without the insight of social media profiles) who have turned out to be really talented and successful were tee totalling puritans who sat in knitting all day?
Don’t be ridiculous.
Actually, 70 percent of hiring managers should be rejected for rejecting candidates for reasons like those.
[...] am not a brand. I am me… 01/02/2010 Leave a comment Go to comments I read a blog post last week via twitter on the growing subject of the ‘personal brand’, discussing yet [...]
Simon,
it is someone’s personal life and it should be that, unless you are doing something in your private life that will impact on your ability to do a role
However, the world doesn’t work like that
I would, with some sadness, say that we all have to exercise caution and vigilance: a photo taken years ago posted by someone else without consideration at a friend’s birthday looking a bit worse for drink could be interpreted in a misguided way. As I have said on my blog- “the private life is dead.”
Rob