Warning: The top 10 social media mistakes that can cost you a new job

Michael Timmermann | August 16th, 2018

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If you’re applying for new jobs, you may want to take a closer look at your Facebook, Twitter and other social media profiles before your prospective employers do!

A new CareerBuilder survey says 70% of employers use social networking sites to research job candidates, while 7% of them plan to start.

Be careful what you post! Here are the social media mistakes that can cost you a new job

What may be even more surprising is that 57% of employers who do social media research say they’ve found content that caused them to NOT hire candidates, the national survey of more than 1,000 hiring managers and HR professionals found.

Here are the 10 primary reasons why job applicants have been eliminated from consideration because of their online profiles:

Posted provocative or inappropriate photographs, videos or information: 40%
Posted information about them drinking or using drugs: 36%
Had discriminatory comments related to race, gender, religion, etc.: 31%
Linked to criminal behavior: 30%
Lied about qualifications: 27%
Had poor communication skills: 27%
Bad-mouthed their previous company or fellow employee: 25%
Screen name was unprofessional: 22%
Shared confidential information from previous employers: 20%
Lied about an absence: 16%

Employers aren’t always digging for dirt. They may be looking for information to support a candidate’s qualifications for the job, see if the candidate has a professional online persona or check what other people are posting about the candidate.

But this is a good reminder to use common sense and think about how what you post can have serious long-term consequences.

According to CareerBuilder, you shouldn’t expect social media monitoring to stop once you’re hired. Nearly half of employers (48%) say they use social networking sites to research current employees.