While Facebook users generally share everything on their profile with friends, sometimes their family and coworkers are put in the “blocked” category, limiting their Facebook stalking to a profile picture and list of favorite movies, keeping embarrassing party photos hidden.
But not everyone is cautious about what appears on their Facebook, and this could cost them job opportunities as an increasing percentage of employers are referencing social media platforms as part of their background check process, according to University of Massachusetts lecturer Barbara Roche.
“Businesses definitely use Facebook in their background checks,” said Roche. “People think they know how to hide things but trust me, employers find a way to see your stuff.”
A study, released by the United Kingdom business psychology firm OPP earlier this month, showed that 56 percent of employers said they were likely to check out the social media presence of a potential employee. The plans of students seeking higher education in hopes of someday obtaining a successful career could easily be diverted by one drunken Facebook picture or obscene status update, according to the study.
One of Roche’s courses, Journalism Launchpad, is designed as a final step in preparing students for the real world outside of UMass. She said her first order of business with that class this semester was to clean out their incriminating pictures on Facebook.
“Take out anything that shows you with a drink in your hand, which is about 75 percent of the content with a lot of these kids,” said Roche. “People may pose the argument that they are 21, but to an old person it doesn’t matter.”
Jillian Correira, a sophomore journalism major at UMass, said the new Facebook Timeline enables those doing some investigative digging in a big way.
“With the old profile, no one was going to go out of their way to scroll down someone’s wall to find something. The timeline makes it way too easy to go back in time on a person’s Facebook page,” she said.
With the national unemployment rate at 8.5 percent and over 2.2 million jobs lost in the economic downturn, a quick check of Facebook could be the determining factor in whether or not an applicant gets hired or even cause someone to be fired, according to the report.
“I’m not sure if they do, but students should definitely start paying attention to what is on their Facebook pages,” said Correira. “Even if you aren’t graduating yet, a lot of us are applying for internships and summer jobs which we should prepare for the same way we would a full-time job.”
After the resume building, internship slaving, business attire shopping, maybe a quick glance at the Facebook page before stepping out the door to that job interview is all that is needed to secure that dream position.
“The thing about privacy is you don’t give it back once you’ve given it away,” said Roche, talking about the information one hands over to Facebook when creating an account.
“I hear young people saying ‘privacy is overrated,’” said Roche. “Privacy is like a $100 bottle of wine with you young guys. You’ve never tasted it so you don’t know how good it can be.”
In the meantime, OPP offers some simple advice. “Lock down your Facebook profile, and behave on LinkedIn as you would at a professional networking event (without the free bar!).”
Christina Gregg can be reached at [email protected].
