One-in-four hiring managers admitted to using Internet search engines to research potential employees and one-in-10 used social networking sites in their screening processes, according to a September 2006 CareerBuilder.com survey, which may jeopardize college students' employment chances if they post questionable personal information online.
Fifty-one percent of employers who used Internet search engines to screen applicants did not hire candidates based on their findings. Furthermore, 63 percent of employers did not hire applicants who used social networks, according to the survey.
Francine Blume, director of experiential education at AU's Career Center, said AU students have lost job offers because of online material, but she is unsure how many were affected because the employers were not forthcoming.
"I don't think people want to admit to using it," she said.
Internet screening is not a sound process because there is not quality control of online information. Employers have no way of knowing who posted on the site, she said.
The Web site surveyed 1,150 hiring managers nationwide between Aug. 31 and Sept. 5. The industries with the most responses were health care, hospitality, accounting/finance, IT, government and retail sales, said Laura Morsch, career adviser for CBcampus.com, CareerBuilder.com's college division.
Misrepresenting qualifications, poor communication skills and criminal behavior were the top information that caused managers to dismiss potential employees. Other reasons employers did not hire applicants were due to badmouthing previous employers and co-workers, drug use, posting secret information from other employers, lying about an absence and inappropriate photos, according to the survey. The survey asked hiring managers about social networking sites in general rather than about specific sites, Morsch said.
Some managers said online information helped confirm their decisions, according to CareerBuilder.com. Of the hiring managers surveyed, 64 percent hired the candidate based on online information supporting his professional qualifications, 40 percent said the candidate was well rounded and 34 percent said the candidate had great communication skills.
Students should focus more on impressing employers with a good r?sum? and cover letter rather than an Internet profile, Blume said.
Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder.com, said students should make their profiles private, monitor the comments being posted on personal sites and use a search engine to find self-incriminating information.
Allison Guerra, a sophomore in the Kogod School of Business, said a student's personal life is his or her own business. A candidate's weekend activities should not matter unless the activities affect the company's image, she said.
Nevertheless, Guerra said she knows seniors that erased incriminating pictures of themselves on Facebook.
Mike Bleau, a senior in Kogod who works part-time for a consulting firm in Virginia, said his firm uses Facebook, Google and MySpace to look up potential student interns and employees. "It's public domain, so it's considered fair game," he said.
CareerBuilder.com is the nation's largest online job site with more than 23 million visitors and over 1.5 million jobs, according to the site. The company offers an online and print network to help job seekers connect with employers.
