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Nearly Half of Employers Screen Social Media Profiles
HR departments use Facebook, MySpace as source of information on candidates
By Nick McMaster
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Posted Aug 19, 09 4:45 PM CDT
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(Newser)
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It’s becoming increasingly likely that a prospective employer will check your Facebook, MySpace or LinkedIn profile, Mashable reports. A recent survey found that 45% of human-resource departments search the social-media profiles of prospective employees, with another 11% planning to institutionalize a social-networking screen in the near future. And recruiters don’t always like what they see: 35% had disqualified an applicant over objectionable content.
However, sometimes the extra information afforded by social-networking sites is a boon: 18% of employers said that they had found something in a screening that caused them to hire the candidate.