Online Postings Can Haunt Job Search

Students beware: Those fun photos, wacky videos and raunchy comments you are posting on Facebook, MySpace, College Humor, YouTube, Google or any Web site today could come back to haunt you tomorrow.

Does that sound dramatic or exaggerated? It's not. According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, which conducted a survey of its members in 2006, your potential future employer is likely to check out your profile as part of the hiring process.

The NACE study found: "More than one in 10 employers (11.1 percent) responding to NACE's recent Job Outlook 2007 Fall Preview survey reported plans to review profiles on social networking when considering candidates for jobs." And the survey found more companies admitted they may look at social networking sites in the future. "Moreover, profile information may have at least some effect on an employer's hiring decisions: More than 60 percent of employers who review social networking sites said the information gleaned there has at least some influence on their hiring decisions."

Colleges Take Notice

College career advisers are starting to encourage students to take precautions. Morgan Kinross-Wright, director of the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management Undergraduate Business Career Center, said the time to think about this is now.

"You'll walk by a student on a computer and see them looking up their friends on Facebook," Kinross-Wright said. "It's such a new form of social interaction, but what we're seeing is that recruiters who may be alums or may have access to Facebook, they're checking out potential candidates for interviews, and so we've had to bring a whole new line of preparation to our students and let them know, 'Hey don't put anything on Facebook that you wouldn't want your parents to see.'"

Kinross-Wright cautions that an employer checking out graduates' profiles is really just the next step from "Googling" them, but that social networking sites can reveal much more personal information. "I think that while a great spring break picture might not tell somebody directly 'Hey this student isn't going to be a communicator,' it might give them some concerns about level of responsibility, level of maturity."

Students may bristle at what they perceive as an invasion of privacy, but already college administrators who have access to students' Facebook accounts are disciplining students based on postings they add to social networking Web sites.

A recent Newsweek Magazine article detailed expulsions and punishments of college students because of photos of drinking or postings deemed to be threatening.

Social-Networking Participation Surges

And the availability of such personal information about tomorrow's workforce is increasing exponentially. Google named MySpace the top gainer for 2005.

"In only two years, MySpace has shot from zero to 47.3 million members," founders Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson told USA Today.

The new fastest-growing site on the social networking block is Facebook, which was founded for college kids. According to TechCrunch.com, a site dedicated to reviewing Internet companies, about 85 percent of students in supported colleges have a profile up on Facebook.

"That's 3.85 million members," the report said. "Sixty percent log in daily. About 85 percent log in at least once a week, and 93 percent log in at least once a month. " And those numbers are expected to soar now that Facebook has opened its virtual doors to high school students."

Employers Get Creative

But the larger the group, and the more information put on social networking sites, the more tempting it is for recruiters and hiring managers to check out potential employees.

"It makes a great deal of sense for an employer to go ahead and get creative about the sources they are turning to to get that information," said Joe Spartz, of the Employers Association Inc.. "The Internet is an incredible vehicle by which employers are able to gather information in a way they weren't able to do as little as four to five years ago."

But Spartz recommends employers carefully consider if the information they are gaining is accurate and relevant to the skills the employee will need to do his or her job.

Recruiters and career counselors seem to agree with Kinross-Wright on the best advice to students posting profiles online.

"You have to make sure that whatever is written about you on the Internet is something you want other people to see because it is out there forever," Kinross-Wright said.

Forever is a long time for future employers to see your crazy high school or college days.