WASHINGTON — If you’re looking for a job, it’s not enough to double-check your resume and polish your interview skills. Potential employers are looking at applicants’ social-media profiles more than ever — and not just for potentially embarrassing stuff.
A CareerBuilder survey finds that the number of employers who use social media and networking sites to check out applicants has roughly quintupled in the past 10 years — from 11 percent in 20016 to 60 percent currently.
“Tools such as Facebook and Twitter enable employers to get a glimpse of who candidates are outside the confines of a resume or cover letter,” said Rosemary Haefner, CareerBuilder’s chief human resources officer.
“And with more and more people using social media, it’s not unusual to see the usage for recruitment to grow as well.”
The job categories in which hiring managers were most likely to use social networks to screen candidates might seem obvious: IT (76 percent) and sales (65 percent). But even a majority of managers in manufacturing (56 percent) use such tools.
You might think keeping your social media profiles private is the safe move, but that doesn’t seem like a good idea either: 41 percent of the managers surveyed say they’re less likely to interview someone they can’t find online.
The news isn’t all bleak: 32 percent of the employers who screen applicants on social media said they found information that made them more likely to hire a candidate, such as a professional image, evidence of relevant experience — even signs of a personality that would fit in well with the company.
But nearly half — 49 percent — found things that turned them off, such as inappropriate photos or videos, evidence of drinking and drug use, discriminatory comments of disparaging comments about a previous employer.
It’s not just job-seekers who have to be careful — 41 percent of employers said they use social networks to keep an eye on their current workers, and 32 percent use search engines. And 26 percent say they‘ve found something there that led them to reprimand or fire a worker.
The survey was conducted by Harris Poll earlier this year, and surveyed 2,186 hiring managers and human resources people, as well as 3,031 workers. The margin of error on the survey is 2.1 percent and 1.78 percent, respectively.
