In a few short years, social media has gone from a pleasant addition to our everyday lives to an integral part of the social landscape. At this point in the game, people that don’t have a Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn account are looked at with suspicion rather than pity. Any startup that knows what it’s doing has multiple accounts, as well as a notable online presence. However, when it comes to landing your dream job, it could be these very accounts that spell your doom.
According to data from YouGov, there are a number of posts that could easily prevent you from getting that second interview. After surveying more than 2000 business decision makers, YouGov was able to discover which kinds of posts are the most likely to raise concerns among potential employers. And the results are a little more petty than you might expect.
Aggressive and offensive language came in as the number one reason an employee wouldn’t be considered for a position, with 75 percent of decision makers saying that would put them off a candidate, with references to drug use coming in at number two (71 percent). Those are to be expected, as hundreds of blog posts and social media warriors have shown that they will stop at nothing to prevent an offensive troll from landing their dream job.
However, the third most common reason employers are put off from candidates is bad spelling and grammar. More than half of these decision makers believe that the improper use of “their” warrants more consideration than someone posting drunk pictures of themselves. So before deleting that album of pictures from your trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, make sure to run a quick spell check on your next post.
Wondering which sites you need to scrub before your next interview? Don’t worry, YouGov has got you covered, as they also polled decision makers concerning which sites they are most frequently perusing to get this kind of intel. According to the data, LinkedIn and Facebook are the most commonly checked platforms, both at just under half of employers, followed by Twitter (28 percent) and Instagram (15 percent).
If you don’t feel like doing away with inflammatory posts, references to drug use, and poorly spelling, you could get lucky, as 31 percent of decision makers said that they do not check social media platforms of candidates. Fingers crossed!
While some many think that the social media check-up is an urban myth, don’t be fooled. According to the survey, nearly one fifth of decision makers has turned turn a candidate after checking their social media accounts. While startups and smaller companies do so less frequently, large corporations have the manpower to do a thorough check before hiring a new employee. So if you’ve got an interview at Google, you better start scrubbing now.
Read more about social media behaviors here on Tech.Co
