10 minutes scanning your Facebook profile can predict what kind of worker you'll be
By now, everyone knows that pic of you holding the bong or posing with a handgun on Facebook isn’t the greatest idea.
It only took a few months after the social network’s launch for employers to realize, Hey, let’s just hop online and look what kind of idiot I’m about to hire, but they have, en masse, and the proof is in the pudding.
Some 70 per cent of recruiters and HR staffs have reportedly turned down job candidates after scoping them out on Facebook.
But according to a to-be-published report, it isn’t just the flagrantly preposterous photos of drug use or gelled hair club-losery that doom your job prospects.
In fact, by the new study to be published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, it can take as little as ten minutes surfing your Facebook profile to tell how you’ll perform in the workplace.
*Bing: How to clean your Facebook identity
In the study, researchers asked a university professor and two random students to spend ten minutes scanning the social network profiles of employed college students. They then responded to a series of personality-related questions about those kids, like whether they thought the students were emotionally stable or dependable based on their photos, posts and status updates.
Six months later the researchers tracked down the real-world performance reviews of those student employees, finding a spooky correlation between the study’s earlier perceptions of them.
Remarkably, according to the study, the Facebook personality tests proved to be more accurate in gauging employees than the tests the companies used earlier.
By this point in the post, you’re likely cringing and wondering just what’s on your profile that can doom you in a ten minute sweep, but it’s important to note that it isn’t just negatives spotted on Facebook.
The study didn’t only focus on the bad, instead highlighting personality traits employers would covet that can be quickly seen on Facebook.
If he or she is social, curious or has a sense of humour, for instance, are all good things that can come from having your online profile scrubbed. Similarly, photos of partying, when viewed through this scope, aren’t signs you’re an irresponsible drunk, rather that you’re outgoing, sociable and comfortable around people.
By Jason Buckland, MSN Money
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