“Using a social networking site launched in 2004 from a Harvard dorm room is not the way to land your next job. Over the past couple years, there has been a lot of buzz about employers using Facebook to do background references on potential job candidates, Joe Protopapa, the assistant director of cooperative education and internships at the Center for Career Management at the University of Akron, said.”
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Using a social networking site launched in 2004 from a Harvard dorm room is not the way to land your next job.
Over the past couple years, there has been a lot of buzz about employers using Facebook to do background references on potential job candidates, Joe Protopapa, the assistant director of cooperative education and internships at the Center for Career Management at the University of Akron, said.
Protopapa has worked at the center for more than four years.
In my work with employers I have not heard of many [if any] who have utilized Facebook for this purpose, Protopapa said. A recent study by National Association of Colleges and Employers suggests that there are not nearly as many employers using Facebook for personal references as we think, and that there are far fewer employers using social media during the hiring process.
Protopapa said during his time working at CCM, We have not seen students at UA affected negatively by the site. Originally we thought it would hurt job seekers because there are so many pitfalls to publishing your life online.
It could be used in a positive way, but it is a social site, he said.
Protopapa said he does not recommend that students delete their Facebook pages in order to avoid possible conflict with their job search.
However, he does suggest that students delete any ‘inappropriate’ material that may be posted on their page and to ask family and friends to not write inappropriate things on their pages or tag them in photos.
While Facebook may not have negatively affected UA students, a recent survey commissioned by Microsoft Corp. determined that 70 percent of recruiters and hiring managers have not hired someone due to content they found online.
Last year, CareerBuilder, an online job search database, also conducted a survey with 2,600 hiring managers and found that 45 percent reported using social networking sites to screen applicants before hiring, compared to only 22 percent in 2008.
UA sophomore Shannon Fort is an active Facebook user and thinks employers are using Facebook as another reference. Interviewing alone doesn’t really give you a good enough idea of who that person really is, she said.
Fort is an intervention specialist major and plans to be a special education teacher. She said that since she will be working with children one day, viewing someone’s Facebook page before hiring is a good thing.
If I worked for a school and was interviewing teachers I would definitely check the applicant’s Facebook, Fort said. I wouldn’t want my kids to be taught by someone who is not professional and takes part in inappropriate things in their free time.
Sophomore Jessica Billock, an early childhood education major, has personally heard of Facebook affecting someone’s future.
There was a girl who applied for a teaching job shortly after graduating. The administrators of that school looked her up on Facebook and saw that she had explicit pictures of her drinking. Even though she was highly qualified for the job, the school did not hire her, she said.

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