45% Employers Use Facebook-Twitter To Screen Job Candidates

There’s no denying that finding a job in today’s market is a challenge. So what can you do to up your chances of landing the right position? According to CareerBuilder, you better keep a clean Facebook page.

According to a recent survey by the site, 45% of companies are checking out potential employees’ social pages. This is twice a high as last year’s numbers, when only 22% of companies surveyed last year were checking in on applicants through their social sites. Another 11 percent plan to start using social networking sites for screening. More than 2,600 hiring managers participated in the survey, which was completed in June 2009.

Facebook was the most-checked site, with 29% of hiring managers saying they browsed through people’s pages to get an idea of what candidates were like away from work. That’s even higher than the 26% of employers that checked out profiles in LinkedIn, which is considered more of a business-related site.

10% of employers say they look at personal blogs, and 7% of employers checking out Twitter feeds. Not surprisingly, the industries that are the most prone to screening social sites are IT (63%) and Professional and Business Service (53%).

Of course, Facebook users that are also seeking jobs may want to take a little time to make sure there aren’t any dirty photos or obscene posts on their pages that may reflect poorly on them. On the other side of that coin, your Facebook page can serve to boost your odds of landing a job. A professional presentation and the right affiliations with applicable Facebook groups can make you a much more attractive candidate than someone with the exact same resume and questionable pictures of his or her crazy trip to Vegas or wild springbreak.

Is this fair you might ask? We think its a grey area, but companies do have to consider how you will represent them. What you do behind closed doors, is just that, but once you post your pics up on the internet for the world to see, then you can become a liability. So keep those dirty pics on your home computer, and don’t upload them to your favorite social network!