We know what you did last night?

This is less of a nod to the Sarah Michelle Gellar’s horror classic, but rather more about the rather chilling realisation that your social media profile could be hindering your chances of getting a job!

I admit this may sound outrageous. I never believed recruiters when they said that I should make sure my Facebook profile didn’t contain obscene comments or images. However, it seems making your particularly dodgy pictures and videos visible to the public may actually harm your job chances. With so many people applying for jobs, I guess recruiters and employers are looking for more superficial ways to reject you.

Hays, the recruitment firm ran a survey of nearly 800 people and found 36% did not think an employer would look at their profiles. Therefore they made no changes to their social media habits when job hunting.

Not the impression you want to give your future boss

Only one in ten admitted editing content and untagging photos when looking for a job. While around 55% declared they had changed their privacy settings, in a bid to ensure personal information did not compromise their jobs chances.

Regional Managing Director of Hays, Mark Sheldon, said: "While the majority of people are taking sensible steps to protect their privacy online when looking for a job, it’s worrying to see that so many people don’t recognise the potential pitfalls associated with social media use.”(Milkround, 2012)

With the extra competition for graduate jobs, it is the little things that are gaining more importance and relevance in the recruitment process. You may be a strong candidate and say all the right things in interviews, but if employers find out things they don’t like about you, they don’t have to hire you! I am not saying stop using Facebook or detag every photo in which you look like you are enjoying yourself, but just think what some of the more obscene photos say about you. This is probably more relevant to rugby boy socials! For more graduate news please follow this blog.