Your Boss Just Sent You a Friend Request,

Accept or Decline?
Zander A. February 21, 2017

Companies are monitoring their current and future employees social media
profiles.
Social media started off to stay connected with friends
and family, but over time it has changed into something more
than that. Many people that have social media are asking
themselves, can the personal information I put on my profile
affect my job?

Do you ever wonder if posting that flashy picture on

Facebook or Instagram could affect your current job or future
career? Did you ever stop to think that maybe your number of
friends or followers on social media could have an impact on
whether you would get that job you just applied for? Have you
Figure 1
ever asked yourself if you should update the screen name that
you made in high school from 420DOMINATOR to something a bit more professional?

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

These and many more things that you post to your social media profiles can influence your
current and future employment. CareerBuilder, which is a company whose purpose is to help employers
hire and manage employees, performed a study on the things that employers look at on a potential new
hires social media profile.

Some of the reasons that employers passed on a candidate included:

Candidate posted a provocative or inappropriate picture or information (46%)

Candidate posted information about them drinking or using drugs (41%)
Candidate shared confidential information from previous employers (24%)

There were also some things that made a candidate more likely to get hired on:

Candidates site conveyed a professional image (43%)

Candidate was well rounded, showed a wide range of interests (40%)
Employer got a good feel for the candidates personality and could see them fitting well with the
company culture. (46%)

One site that wants to empower and educate individuals to protect their privacy is Privacy
Rights Clearinghouse (PRC). They warn about how a future employer may discriminate against you
based on various things that may be on your social media profile. These things include but are not
limited to age, gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, and political affiliations. Discrimination is
illegal and in this case, may be hard to prove. It is important that you are aware that it could happen to
you.

The Times They Are a-Changin

We live in a society that is becoming increasingly open about one anothers personal lives. Our
personal info is given up and traded like the stocks on wall street. More people are using social media
not just to stay connected but also to express themselves. While this is becoming the norm, there are
still ways in which you can protect the information that you choose to share with the world and your
potential employers.

Making Informed Decisions

At the end of the day its up to you on whether you want to tell the world how your physical went,
how crazy the rave you went to over the weekend got, or what your views of the new president are. You
possess all the keys to stay informed and safe on social media, especially when it comes to how
potential employers will one day view you. The National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) which teaches
and informs about online safety, offers these tips and many more on their website:

Once posted, always posted.

Privacy and security settings exist for a reason.
Know and manage your friends.

These tips and others that the NCSA gives, can help in many ways. The more informed you are, the
better prepared you are to portray the persona that you want to be online. You control most of your
online reputation and you can make the decision of how much or little personal info you share with the
world-wide web. Perhaps next time you will think long and hard about whether to post a certain picture
or a heated political view. It may just affect your future.
 References

Baunfire.com, SparkCMS By. "Social Networks." StaySafeOnline.org. National Cyber Security Alliance,

n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2017. <https://staysafeonline.org/stay-safe-online/protect-your-personal-

information/social-networks>.

CareerBuilder. "Number of Employers Using Social Media to Screen Candidates Has Increased 500

Percent over the Last Decade." Press Releases. CareerBuilder, LLC., 28 Apr. 2016. Web. 18 Feb.
2017.
<http://www.careerbuilder.com/share/aboutus/pressreleasesdetail.aspx?ed=12%2F31%2F2016
&id=pr945&sd=4%2F28%2F2016>.

Charlton, Don. Image 1. Digital image. Social Media Screening: Heres How To Use It In Your Hiring

Decisions. ERE MEDIA, 5 Dec. 2012. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.

<https://www.eremedia.com/tlnt/social-media-screening-heres-how-to-use-it-in-your-hiring-
decisions/>.

Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. "Social Networking Privacy: How to Be Safe, Secure and Social." Consumer

Guides. Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, 1 June 2010. Web. 18 Feb. 2017.

<https://www.privacyrights.org/consumer-guides/social-networking-privacy-how-be-safe-
secure-and-social#job-searches>.