Online Recruiting: Social Networks Profiles are Quite Useless in Early Assessments and Job Interviews

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Online Recruiting: Social Networks Profiles are Quite Useless in Early Assessments and Job Interviews

Over the last decade, selecting and reading candidates' social network profiles has become increasingly important in the early assessment phase of recruitment.
If a candidate passes this early assessment phase, sometimes he/she receives a question about his/her social presence.
Of course, the things that seize recruiters' attention are some explicit posts (i.e.: politically oriented, etc.) or pics (i.e.: parties and dressing, etc.) and also some particular cases like a canceled social account or "absence" on some social network. All of these situation may lead to some question to the candidate, intended to clarify a judgment that is shaping in the recruiter's mind. These questions typically end up embarrassing the candidate.

Starting from the consideration that anyone can show him/herself in any way on a social network or not show anything at all (even if having a specific social network account), what is shown on the social network can be just an appearance, and not a accurate reflection of the candidate's substantial and effective being, is it still so important to deeply verify a candidate's social presence? Might it not be misleading about who the candidate really is and what is her/his situation?

I think that it is better to focus the early assessment phase and the interview more on questions about personality, interests of the person than their social presence. After all, making a lot of funny Tik Tok videos, doesn't make a person silly or stupid or not accountable, as well as being so present on LinkedIn with a lot of "professional opinions and links" does not say much about the professionally of the candidate.

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		2 John Henry Project Manager, United States
	Social Network Presence is One Source for Recruitment I would not say social network review is useless... But it can not be the only work done. Knowing the type of person someone is, their attitudes toward others, their interactions with others, is important when identifying someone to fit into an existing team. If for instance the person leaving was a leader, and you find a replacement who has not ever led professionally, knowing they were a youth coach, or a volunteer, or a tutor, shows that they have developed leadership skills. Seeing how they interact in their conversations, will reflect how they may interact at work. You need to know what you are looking for when you go to social media, and you can find needful information on candidates there. You are a sum of your beliefs, your actions and your environment (family, friends, activities, giving back, etc) so you do get a picture, much like the interview, it is an incomplete picture, much like a resume, it is an archival history, but to get a clear picture, you need to see things from more than one point of view.

		2 Erik Kleine, Netherlands
	Social Network Presence Just Isn't my Thing There are so many more interesting things in life to do than maintaining a social network presence. Just think about spending your time with actually meeting other people in stead of searching online recognition. Or enjoying your free time connecting with nature. If recruiters really get their first impression from social network activity, I would like to say to them: get a life first. You are not yet able to judge another one's value.

		1 Vincenzo Mosca Student (MBA), Italy
	Social Network Presence Just Isn't my Thing @Erik Kleine: I totally agree with you. Social network are like the outside of cloth shop: from the outside you see some clothes you like, but once you enter and try them on you can buy some of them, but most don't fit or don't match with your style and looks.

		4 chioma Management Consultant, Nigeria
	Social Network Plays a Role Our evolving world has brought the influence of social network to the fore. The urge to search a person's social network sometimes becomes instinctive to many of us. The first connection for most people is to build a profile of someone based on the information they shared. I agree that a profile on some social network could be misleading and incomplete, however, most people reveal their personality by the groups they identify with, the communication trail they leave, and the biases they share and like. Social networks sometimes make it easy to build a first impression. But they shouldn't be the only way to assess a candidate's value and world view.

		1 Maurice Hogarth Consultant, United Kingdom
	Social Network and Personality Portrayal In my extremely limited experience of social networking I have found that the presence that the person depicts is very much a reflection of the personality of that person. People choose to portray themselves in a way that they want others on their network to perceive them. This display may not be truly 'them' as they are in real life; as they conform to the 'world' in which they have to live. It is, however, a reflection of what is inside them: whether it be a 'lion' or a cat perceiving and portraying itself as a 'lion'. Agreed, that taking part in a 'silly dance' video does not mean that the person is 'silly' it could indicate a number of positive traits that are desirable in a role. Therefore, if a person's social network presence is to be taken into account it must be taken on-balance and in total. Simply responding to an image or two from a person's posted presence means the taking of biased decisions based on a "horns" or "halo" effect..

		0 Vincenzo Mosca Student (MBA), Italy
	Interesting Point of View But HR People Judge Too Fast @Maurice Hogarth: I think your point of view is interesting and I agree that, all in all, if a person's social network presence is to be taken into account it must be taken on-balance and in total. But, from what I saw and also experienced in some job interviews I had, is that some HR people are judging on just a photos/videos. And I was completely surprised when a job interviewer asked me why my Twitter account was blocked or canceled or something similar: it just happened that I signed up Twitter, used it for few days, didn't understand how it really worked and I ended up not using it anymore. And then this person insisted, asking several more questions on this Twitter account. I don't know what this interviewer thought about me, maybe that I am person not interested in what happens in the word around me, not interested in dialogue with other people or whatever. But my not being there or my appearance on Facebook or LinkedIn don't make me exactly what I show in these virtual spaces. So, I think that HR must take everything into balance and, even if there is something strange in an interviewees' social profiles, this must be weighted correctly on the balance of the judgement about this person that could be potentially hired.

		2 John Henry Project Manager, United States
	If you Walk Like a Duck, Quack Like a Duck, Hang Out with Ducks... Your social media page(s) will demonstrate that you are a duck. This is not surprising. However if you are a duck, and are applying for a position as a Turkey buzzard, you are not a good fit for the r...

		3 Vincenzo Mosca Student (MBA), Italy
	Job Interviewers Must Go Deeper Then your Social Profile @John Henry: Actually, except on LinkedIn, on Facebook I am kind of a "voyeur" (not in a bad sense, of course!) and I don't have Instagram account and other stuff. On Facebook I just see the groups an...

		1 Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
	Social Media Profile Use by Recruiters Research by Zhang et al. Confirms that 1. Recruiters look at social media profiles, 2. Recruiters are influenced by them and 3. Use of social media profiles did not help them at all to make better ...

		4 Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
	Beware of Online Recruiting and Online Hiring and Selection I never believed in using online selection tools to assess human beings. It always felt wrong to me. Now, in current "great resignation" era with major employee shortages, using automated hiring and s...

		1 SHAIQ ALI MIRZA Manager, Pakistan
	Recruiting Employees by Using Social Media Profile @Vincenzo Mosca: I strongly agree with you. Hiring of an employee is a process which requires from HR personnel to deeply asses an individual by their norms, culture, skills, ideas, posture, gesture a...

		0 Melissa Waterman HR Consultant
	What About Regulatory Risks? No surprise, from HR viewpoint I am wondering what you all think about the EEOC and FCRA risks of recruiters using social media information as screening tools in the talent acquisition process?...

		1 Anonymous
	E-Recruiting Using SNS There is no such thing called "perfect" in this world, and neither are human beings nor Social Network Services (SNS). If we all are aware of this principle, we shall be able to judge how we should ta...