How do employers screen candidates on social media? 14 March 2022 at 7:08PM in Employment, jobseeking & training 18 replies 1.4K views

Spender£

Does anyone know which employers use social media to screen candidates?

I am concerned because I'm not on most of these websites however a person with a baseball cap, gold chains and tattoos is on them and he has my name and looks like me and lives in my area he also loves racing cars and doing doughnut spins at high speed.

How do they know if the person is really me, I'm not judging this guy but on Facebook for example how can they be sure it is the person applying for the job role?

lincroft1710

Are you sure this person isn't actually you?

[Deleted User]

Sounds guilty by association.

74jax

I used to use social media when we narrowed it down to 2 or 3 people. 
In all honestly mainly Linkedin - what posts they liked, what interactions they had.
I would check Facebook / Instagram to make sure there was no naming and slagging off of current or past employers.
I looked at name, area, and if the details fit.ie worked at asda and wrote an asda uniform in some photos.  That's it really. 

Spender£

lincroft1710 said:

Are you sure this person isn't actually you?

The only reason I know it's not me is cos he has hair and I don't!

hangryconsumer

Love this post.

TBagpuss

As an employer, I would be interested in whether someone posts  indiscreet or derogatory posts about their workplace or colleagues, or anything suggesting they are acting illegally.

If you are concerned then you could mention at interview that you are not on facebook / whichever social media it is - also at that point presumably they will be able to see that it is not you because of the difference in appearance .

Do you have a very unusual name? If I find a John Smith then I wouldn't assume that it is the same John Smith I have a job application from. If your name is Englebert DeWinter ffinch-Smythe  then I'm more likely to assume that you are the same person who has a social media account under that name, in which case you may want to clarify.

Ditzy_Mitzy

Has anyone ever seen the two of you together at the same time?  Do you live in Edinburgh?  Have you been doing any experiments with strange chemicals?  Are there any periods of time, hours or days, that you cannot account for?  

Undervalued

To answer the question in the title of this thread....

How do employers screen candidates on social media?

In any lawful way they please!

I suspect these days most prospective employers will have at least a cursory look, whereas others will search in detail or maybe even put the "vetting" out to a specialist company.

Remember, apart from a few criteria protected by law, an employer can decide who to employ based on any factors they please. They can certainly look at any material in the public domain, with or without the candidate's permission, and some may insist on having access to any "private" social media. 

Equally some other employers may not care in the slightest.

theoretica

If you are particularly concerned you could set up your own social media accounts just to be findable and unobjectionable.

olil71

workers can actually watch social media. to avoid the situation you wrote about, I advise you to insert a link to social networks in the CV, and then they will not search for your pages on the Internet. If you generally do not want work employee monitoring to look at your life, you can create fake accounts with information that will be enough for an HR.