Recruiters are more and more interested in the social media profiles of people. Why? Because you might lie on your resume or it might not reflect completely who you are, but most likely your true self is on social networks – where you have social validation from people that know you and where you are more free to express yourself.

A study made by Reppler on 300 recruiters in September 2011 was showing that 91% of them use social networks to screen prospective employees.

When does this magic happen?

47% of them check the social profiles right after receiving the application, 27% after an initial conversation with the prospective employee, 15% after a detailed conversation and 4% right before making an offer.

Does it happen to be accepted or rejected based on social network profiles?

On one hand, 68% of recruiters in the survey said they hired a candidate based on the social media screening. Usually that was because they wowed by the candidate’s creativity, communication skills, good references, personality and also because they validated the qualifications mentioned in the resume.

On the other hand, 69% of recruiters said it happened that they rejected candidates after looking on the social profiles if they saw lies about qualifications (mismatch with the resume), poor communication skills (grammar and spelling mistakes) or negative or confidential information about previous employers.

On top of that, since they were on the social profiles, they were tempted to look for candidates’ photos too and inappropriate ones make a reason for rejection as well (photos while drinking, using drugs etc.)

Another study made by Jobvite on 1000 recruiters in June 2012 shows that 86% of recruiters look at social profiles (48% always do, 25% occasionally and 14% if links provided).

So activities on social networks can be an advantage or a disadvantage when it comes to getting a job. Some people are concerned with privacy (and yes, do take care of the privacy of your party photos or very personal posts), some people are trying to showcase as good as possible their true professional potential.

Splinter.me encourages professionals to turn their social profiles into an advantage and comes to help both categories by:

> extracting, analyzing and displaying only relevant information from social networks to showcase professional profiles (which means giving recruiters everything they need on the splinter profiles, so that they do not have to screen candidates on each social network manually)

> empowering professionals to manage their professional data based on social networks activities (which means professionals have control over the profile that is seen by recruiters)

Speaking of relevant information: we know most professionals fear to connect their Facebook to a recruitment platform, but we can ensure you that we are not extracting inappropriate photos, but only your professional interests, skills, expertise, experience and personality. Check the most viewed profiles on splinter.me to see what we mean!

Comments

comments