Refused a job because of social media? - Does your online presence say more than your CV?

It is no secret that most companies use social media to research their candidates. This is a phenomenon that has only really happened over the past 5-7 years. Its sad to say, but gone are the days of your CV being all an employer wants to see before considering you for an interview. But is this ethical for businesses to do? How do you feel about it when applying for a job? And what can we do about it?

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LinkedIn and Facebook are the highest targeted when companies are conducting their 'research'. But is it not debatable that these two sites, although both in the social media world, offer two completely different services. I feel it is time to remember that peoples lives are multifaceted but the two biggest spectrum's are our work lives and our personal lives.

But what about when we want to use social media to help use FIND a job? Bringing it a little closer to home; see below for stats regarding how we use social media to help us gain recruitment. The whole social media and recruitment relationship could be seen as a double-edged sword. We find employers looking at our profiles to be a little intrusive, yet from the results below, it seems when we want a job it is one of the first places we turn.

 

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But where is the line drawn? Are there any clear guidelines to this seemingly pressing and current issue? Twitter allows us to tweet 24/7 and I feel is a site in the middle of the social media spectrum.

On one end, you have LinkedIn; a site purely designed for people in the business world to interact on social media - you will have a respectable photo and maybe a description of yourself and 'what you do'. A very straight edge account of yourself through the business lens.

Then you have Facebook... with a unashamed selfie for a profile picture and a cover photo of you with your mates on a night out (enough said there) - by and large it gives a different persona completely. This is the social you, this is you OUT of work, having fun and enjoying life. Should we be ashamed of this persona? Should we begin to live Jekyll and Hyde lifestyles online, in fear that we won't get a job?

This does seem a little ridiculous, and although some monitoring needs to be done all round, I feel the two should not really be linked. When we go to work we go as an employee, we know our role and we stick to the rules. When we are away from the workplace, I truly maintain that it is our business what we do.

Twitter, can be viewed either way and is potentially a low-risk site in this scenario, but just remember not to drink and rant on there - it is hard to remove once out there!

Sadly, regardless of my opinion, companies will continue to check out your online profiles to build a '360' view of your life, or how some might say - pry. And this cannot be stopped; if you really want to battle this, you can try to use privacy tools to keep yourself away from this intrusion - or use a different name. I am sure plenty of us have nothing to hide, but in case you are a little threatened by what potential employers can see of you online - keep a simple online persona and hope for the best.

How do you feel about employers using social media as part of recruitment?