Social Media Checks

Does anyone know how common it is for a bank to check your Facebook/twitter/instagram etc.? I deleted my Facebook last year and barely use twitter anymore because of this, and would like to hear how often this kind of thing actually happens.

I know there are programs head hunters and recruiters can use to pull up an individuals pages, but I have heard they can be inaccurate (can't find the right person). Just curious if anyone has experience with this from either an employee getting screened or from the hiring side.

 

Given I'm the only person on earth with my name, I'm paranoid as hell. If you have any doubt whatsoever, delete your stuff. In fact, I'm going to delete my WSO account soon given I'm changing jobs.

Get busy living
 

Do you actually have inappropriate content on your social media? You coudl always change your usernames and edit privacy settings if it makes you paranoid. Highly doubt most banks do extensive checks on social media, just be smart about what you post...

 

Thats one of the things I'm interested in...if you have your accounts on private can they still access it? I am very careful about putting anything online considering how big of a deal social media has become, but everyone from students to professors seem to have different opinions on the topic.

"I must create a system or be enslaved by another man's." William Blake
 

almost all employers are now doing this. Imagine hiring a person who then turns out to be a complete fraud and loses your company millions of $. HR will be asked, "did you check out his background?" If their answer were no, they would look like complete idiots.

 

haha ok.

I got a couple of hits on LinkedIn from places that I threw my resume into but I didn't get any interviews. Just wondering if it's a good sign that they are hitting my profile.

 
blahwoop:
haha ok.

I got a couple of hits on LinkedIn from places that I threw my resume into but I didn't get any interviews. Just wondering if it's a good sign that they are hitting my profile.

the contract for my gig is coming up soon and I applied to a few other spots internally and I keep seeing "someone from 'my company's name' viewed your profile" ...

so genreally it is a good thing, you are worth the effort to look out of the hundreds of apps that came in... or so i tell myself to make myself feel better lol...

Get it!
 
Best Response
lovepark:
what do you mean by "HR Depts have ways of getting through your blocks"? Like, I believe you, Im just curious if you can be a bit more specific.
They can check things you're tagged in for starters. YOUR page may be clean, but the idiot that took pics at Mardi Gras and then posted them can screw you. Also, facebook stuff shows up in google searches, so if you posted something on "who's a fan of terrorism" your name is associated...and people make stupid assumptions.

Think of it this way: the morons in HR won't think too long and hard before drawing the easy conclusion to ding you so they can slim down their workload. Just be as invisible as possible when you're searching for job. The only real way to counteract this is to post on a whole bunch of innocuous pages so that when they do the facebook/google searches, there are so many entries that they can't really narrow it down to anything useful. Unless you're very high level or you specifically piss off an individual assigned to tracking you (never openly disrespect HR), it's not worth it for them to think too hard.

Get busy living
 

Wow I never thought about that..I guess it makes sense that people would do that. And I hope it becomes well known and widespread so people stop putting stupid pictures on Facebook. I'm really getting sick of looking at half naked and full hammered albums.

 
fifty2aces:
I heard that Facebook gives companies open access to profiles - even if you set yours to "friends only". Best keep it clean to be on the safe side!

this is obviously bs

 

facebook would never give companies open access. besides infringing on privacy, how could facebook verify if the company was using your information for legitimate purposes? If companies can access profiles, I could set up a company and tell facebook I'm doing background checks.

 
aachimp:
facebook would never give companies open access. besides infringing on privacy, how could facebook verify if the company was using your information for legitimate purposes? If companies can access profiles, I could set up a company and tell facebook I'm doing background checks.

try this?

 

Analysts who are alumni of the school you attend are the ones who do the checking, and you would have some stupid shit up for it to matter in a negative way. Most of the time, it's just for fun, as they want to see what the kids who come in for interviews are really like when they don't have to kiss ass and all. Keep in mind that these analysts are just out of college and most are really missing it, so they would probably think you're a tool if there weren't pictures of you drinking/partying with your buddies.

 

Exactly--we don't really care too much one way or the other, generally. We expect you to go out and have fun, which is the real reason why the analysts are looking you up: to see if you'd be fun to have around the office, not to make sure you list "spreading comps" under your interests or anything. Facebook is a social networking site, not a job interviewing forum. It has limits, however. Have plenty of fun with it, but just exercise good judgement and don't put up anything that you wouldn't want your potential employers to know about. Like the time you "hit that 8 foot gravity bong in Amsterdam", or pictures of you passed out as your friends draw pictures of cookie monster on your ass (both of which we've seen). They were totally hysterical, but may give some potential interviewers the wrong impression.

Once more into the breach, dear friends.
 
themacroguy:
Some guy googled me during one of my phone interviews....

During your phone interview? Wow I didn't know that actually happened, what kind of questions did he ask?

 

Every single resume that we think about bringing in for an interview gets googled. Trust me, a ridiculous facebook page will not help you. Why would we care? Think about it this way, what if a potential or current client or buyer googled someone after seeing their name in a pitch or a offering book? And upon pressing "enter" they are presented with pictures of said lunatic mooning the camera in Cabo? Probably won't convey the most professional image, eh?

 
jhoratio:
Every single resume that we think about bringing in for an interview gets googled. Trust me, a ridiculous facebook page will not help you. Why would we care? Think about it this way, what if a potential or current client or buyer googled someone after seeing their name in a pitch or a offering book? And upon pressing "enter" they are presented with pictures of said lunatic mooning the camera in Cabo? Probably won't convey the most professional image, eh?

Well I understand the logic of it, but I guess I'm just curious - it seems like an inefficient way to check one's credibility i.e. what are you going to do with Jack Smith or David Liu from some big state schools? I once googled my name and there were tons of things that did't belong to me (and the same goes for anyone with common names)

 

Would the lack of such social networking presence hurt you in any way? I keep my facebook account private and don't have any other social networking accounts (i.e. Twitter, Myspace, etc.) Plus, I rarely use my real name online.

 

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