Hiring & Online Image: The New Background Check

It’s no secret that in a tough job market every aspect of an application counts. What you might not know is that employers are leveraging new techniques to research potential candidates to get sense of who they really are online.

Companies like Social Intelligence create dossiers based on the last seven years of Internet activity: party pictures from college, off-hand remarks or comments, anything illegal, and more. Providing clients with this information can make or break the hiring process for a candidate.

The New York Times reported that Social Intelligence’s service is the newest tactic HR departments have in screening applications. The process may seem like a violation of privacy rights but Social Intelligence already passed an FTC inspection, and it seems that the Terms & Conditions of many popular websites help make the company’s research legal.

Recent statistics show that some 75% of recruiters do online research about candidates and that 70% of these recruiters admit to rejecting candidates based on online activity.

If you can’t remember your password to that MySpace or Photobucket account, now would be a good time to find out and do a little research of your own. You never know what is out there, or who is looking to find out.