Job seekers: beware Facebook

According to research by careerbuilder.co.uk, the interweb increasingly plays a part in recruitment decisions, with 53 per cent of employers researching candidates on sites such as Facebook – and a further 12 per cent planning to start soon.

The results speak for themselves:

• 40 per cent decided not to hire after reading a candidate’s social networking site
• Over a third said a profile proved a candidate had lied about their qualifications
• 13 per cent said a potential employee has made “discriminatory comments” on their Facebook page
• And nine per cent said “provocative or inappropriate” photographs had been posted on the account

And the scariest statistic of all?

• 28 per cent of employers fired someone for content found on a social networking profile

The solution is simple: privacy settings. If you don’t have your privacy settings adjusted to only allow people on your friends’ list to see your content… be very careful about what you post on Facebook.