Survey: 67 Percent Of Hiring Managers Say Facebook Has ‘The Most Incriminating Information’ On Candidates

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New Paychex data shows that 67% of hiring managers say Facebook is the social media platform with “the most incriminating information” about job candidates. Next up is Twitter (9%), then Instagram (8%) and LinkedIn (4%).

Paychex also took a hard look at how often hiring managers say they view applicants’ social media accounts— the overall average is 2.2 times.

But getting down to the nitty-gritty in terms of results by field, the data found that Manufacturing is the one where managers check the most, at 2.9 times on average. Managers look the least at profiles for those in Wholesale and Retail, at 1.6 times on average.

Paychex polled 820 job candidates (ages 18 to 78) and 603 hiring managers (ages 19 to 78) using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. The company also noted that the information is based “on self-reporting.”

The accounts managers check— and where candidates mess up

While Facebook is at the top of the list, the infographic shows that just 6% of hiring managers say that they don’t look at candidates’ social media platforms at all.

What job applicants don’t want hiring managers viewing online

While just 8% of candidates said that they “have nothing to hide,” other respondents were much more adamant about what they don’t want hiring managers to know about when it comes to their social media.

Here are the accounts they would rather keep from hiring managers “the most:” Facebook (40%), Snapchat (13%), Twitter (12%), Instagram (9%), Tumblr (7%), Pinterest (4%), Personal blog (3%), LinkedIn (2%), Google+ (1%) and Reddit (1%).

In that same vein, here are the main reasons why job candidates don’t want hiring managers to see their social media accounts:

• “I want to keep my personal life separate from my professional life:” 66%
• “I don’t want them coming to false conclusions about me:” 52%
• “I don’t want them to discover unprofessional behavior:” 21%
• “I regularly use vulgar language on social media:” 12%
• “Some of my posts could be perceived as extreme or offensive:” 10%
• “I don’t want them to think I party too much:” 9%
•  “I follow pages that could be perceived as provocative, offensive or extreme:” 7%
• “My photos could be perceived as provocative or offensive:” 6%
• “I don’t want them to discover proof of illegal drug use:” 3%
• “I don’t want them to discover proof of other illegal activity:” 3%