Does social media really hurt job seekers?

Job candidates' social-media profiles are often more harmful than helpful when seeking new employment, according to research commissioned by Telstra.

(Linkedin Chocolates by Nan Palmero, CC BY 2.0)

The research, conducted online by Pure Profile this month, looked at 1255 people who were involved in hiring new employees.

It found that overall, 28 per cent of Australian bosses use social networks to screen and/or find potential job candidates, but these employers were also not liking what they saw about 40 per cent of the time.

"According to the findings, some of the biggest Cyber CV faux pas candidates make include posting inappropriate pictures (with 31 per cent of employers saying this counts against applicants) and posting discriminatory comments (37 per cent)," said Telstra officer of internet trust and safety, Darren Kane.

Work-related comments also counted against candidates, with those posting negative comments about their workplace ruled out 44 per cent of the time, and those that post confidential information cutting their opportunities short 32 per cent of the time.

But there were cases in which candidates' social-media profiles helped them land their job. More than one third of employers that use social media to screen candidates made the decision based on the employee's profile.

Of those that screened candidates using social media, 42 per cent said that they were more likely to hire if the candidate's profile showed they had the correct skills for their role, and 24 per cent said that good references left on their profile could be the deal clincher.

Candidates that were able to show that they were prepared to be open with prospective employers were looked upon favourably by 22 per cent of employers, while awards and accolades impressed 17 per cent.

Facebook is the most dominant social-media platform used to screen candidates, with 41 per cent of employers using it to check the background of applicants. LinkedIn followed with 31 per cent; Twitter was used 14 per cent of the time; and YouTube and MySpace were reviewed in 7 per cent of cases.

It's not only potential employees that are being checked, though. About 43 per cent of employers accepted friend requests from their employees, and one third of employers actively look at their current employees' social-media profiles.

Of employers that have "friended" their workers, about 18 per cent of them use the connection to make sure employees aren't posting derogatory comments about themselves or the company, and 15 per cent do so to keep an eye on employee productivity.

However, in the majority of cases, bosses aren't accepting friend requests just to snoop. Existing offline friendships were part of the reason for accepting an employee's friend request about 62 per cent of the time, and some bosses just wanted to share funny content 22 per cent of the time.