Have you ever gone through and deleted certain posts from your social media profiles when applying for a job?
You likely should - according to research, almost 70% of recruiters check out candidates' social media profiles when assessing their suitability for a position, and with such insights readily available, it makes sense that people who are looking to invest in you as an employee would be interested to know as much as they can.
It may seem unethical, but it can provide valuable information. And if it's there, employers are going to use it.
So what are the most concerning elements in this respect, how do people feel about social media checks by recruiters, and what are they hiding as a result? That's what the team from JDP sought to find out in a new survey of over 2,000 American adults, which looked at social media disclosure habits.
Among JDP's key findings:
- 43% of people implement privacy settings to keep material hidden from current employers and future social media screenings
- 46% of respondents indicated that they’ve plugged their names into a search engine and further concealed their social media presence based on what they found
- 25% actively present themselves to attract employers by liking, posting, or following industry-relevant material (with LinkedIn being the leading platform for 'posturing')
JDP have put their full results into the below infographic, providing some interesting insights into what people are looking to hide online.