employment 4 students - The UK's most visited student jobsite

Menu

Social net recruitment "not appropriate"

25 Jul 2007

Social net recruitment "not appropriate" It is not appropriate for employers to look up applicants on social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, one recruitment expert has said.

Donna Miller is European human resources director at Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

She told People Management magazine that researching job candidates in this way is the
equivalent of "going into somebody's house and searching through their bedroom drawers".

She also suggested that a line should be drawn regarding what social networking sites are used for.

Ms Miller emphasised: "I think a lot of students use these sites to meet people and to share pictures with friends - and it's certainly not a way that people look for jobs…they go to specific recruitment sites for that.

"While I agree that everything you put up on the internet is in the public domain and that everyone should be careful, I don't feel it is appropriate for recruiters to look at all of it."

A recent survey by financial services recruiter Joslin Rowe found that around one in five employers check up on candidates using social networking sites.

Facebook now has more than 3.5 million users in the UK, a large proportion of which are students and new graduates.

This number has shot up from just 500,000 in October 2006.

Find your perfect job now!

Register now to let employers find you and be notified about the latest relevant jobs