Does maintaining a social networking page help me gain employment 2

[asixth]

I have heard of employers who will perform searches on social networking pages to try and gain some in-sight on prospective employees.

PRO's

A well constructed and maintained social networking page gives the impression that the prospective employee has good people skills which is a very important attribute which employers look for.

CON's

Damaging or mis-leading personal information can be leaked which may make a potential employer less likely to hire the prospective employee.

QUESTION

Do employers regularly screen social networking sites before interviewing potential employees and should one be maintained with accurate personal information (name and location) to try and help gain future employment.

 

[KSor]

HgTX,

I am not sure either, I'm just saying what I heard. The jist of it was that that information isn't relevant to the employer, so they shouldn't need to look at it.

I suppose you could consider that an employer using the information on a social networking site is the same as if they asked you about your personal information during an interview (religion, family status, etc...) and used that information to exclude you from a position.

Yes, putting that information on social networking sites is putting it in a more public area, but if you really wanted to, you could probably find that information out about someone anyways, we all leave trails on the internet now. If an employer somehow searched through your medical records to find some of this information, would that be alright? Is it more acceptable just because the information is now easier to access?

Now, do I put out any information I think could be construed in the wrong way by any potential or current employer? Of course not. There's always the difference between what should be, and what is.