FollowSocial Media background checks are here to stay, approved by the FTC and increasingly adopted by corporations as a way to screen applicants. The good news is that you need to be a pretty big jerk to flunk one.
A social media background check is a little more sophisticated that checking your Facebook account, but not much. Basically, after you apply for a job at a company, the company–with your permission–hires another company to check you out on the web.
Having the third company check you out on the web is an important part of the process. Employers can’t discriminate on the basis of race, religion, age, sexual orientation and so forth. But if the company does the background check on the web itself, that photo of you with your church group marching in the Gay Pride parade is going to put them in a seriously bad position. If they don’t hire you, you can claim it’s because of that picture.
A social media background check is generally looking for truly evil or illegal activities. These include aggressive or violent acts, unlawful activity, racist statements and sexually explicit activity. They don’t care about that picture of you and your friends sucking down margaritas, as long as you aren’t doing it at a KKK rally.
Still, it’s worth taking a look at what’s out there for you on-line to make sure there’s nothing that can be misconstrued. That Twitter you made about “I could just disembowel my boss” is obviously satire to you, but if somebody doesn’t realize you’re self-employed, it could look like the kind of entry that doesn’t inspire a potential employer.
You should regularly use Google to search for information about yourself and see what turns up. Look at it with fresh eyes (better yet, get somebody else to look at it) to see if it could be misconstrued. If it is, either take it down, or post a clarifying comment (but avoid saying, “I was stoned on a mixture of cocaine and LSD when I posted this, so ignore it!”).
One other thing you can do when you’re looking for a job is to lock down your Facebook or other social media account. All the social media background check company can see is what’s public on your account. So if you have everything on maximum privacy, they’re not going to see much.
And be sure to check your friend’s accounts to make sure they have tagged you in a photo you’d just as soon keep private.
Source: thirdage
