Are employers checking your Facebook Page before hiring?

Checking your Social Media persona is now a “thing” for recruiters and employers before hiring. According to a social media screen made by CareerBuilder Survey, 70 percent of employers use social media to screen candidates before hiring.

There are obvious red flags such as when people seem like doing drugs, drinking, exposing former employers, or even lying bout the qualifications. There are many signs that will lead recruiters/employers to a conclusion about one´s personality, and this is inevitable. It is also possible that certain personality traits such as if the person is more of an introvert or and extrovert that can be screened through their posts on Facebook or Instagram.

To properly name a few important information that should be taken into consideration before you post it out there, we have put together a list:

• What other people post about you, what are their comments on your photos – this helps to understand what is the perception of others towards you and this can be important for the recruiter;

• Information about your qualifications – be consistent and to not lie about it as trust is extremely important in a hire;

• How you present yourself in terms of clothes, is your profile professionally friendly?

• Sensually provocative photographs;

• Information about drinking or drugs;

• Badmouthing others;

• Bad Written skills – show your communicative skills are good;

• Discriminatory posts;

• Candidates linked to criminal behaviours;

• The username is unprofessional;

• You frequently post to much - this will show you will spend more time on social media than working.

Instead you should use social media to your advantage:

• Check your privacy settings just in case someone else decides to post something inappropriate about you – is best you approve all exterior posts on your page;

• Do not overshare your personal life, your night outs, your emotions;

• Google yourself to see what appears on the search engine about you and get rid of what is not good;

• Get connected via LinkedIn as it is a professional network.

Times have changed and our lives are completely exposed, either we use it to our advantage and are able to control what goes on "out there" or we can absolutely destroy our reputation just by a simple post on the wrong moment, in the wrong place. Be "Social Media Conscious", recruiters are definitely using it and in fact it has shown to be beneficial in hiring. What we post has much to do with the way we live which influences our performance in our future jobs.