Online Recruiting: Social Networks Profiles are Quite Useless in Early Assessments and Job Interviews
Over the last decade, selecting and reading candidates' social network profiles has become increasingly important in the early assessment phase of recruitment.
If a candidate passes this early assessment phase, sometimes he/she receives a question about his/her social presence.
Of course, the things that seize recruiters' attention are some explicit posts (i.e.: politically oriented, etc.) or pics (i.e.: parties and dressing, etc.) and also some particular cases like a canceled social account or "absence" on some social network. All of these situation may lead to some question to the candidate, intended to clarify a judgment that is shaping in the recruiter's mind. These questions typically end up embarrassing the candidate.
Starting from the consideration that
anyone can show him/herself in any way on a social network or not show anything at all (even if having a specific social network account),
what is shown on the social network can be just an appearance, and not a accurate reflection of the candidate's substantial and effective being, is it still so important to deeply verify a candidate's social presence? Might it not be misleading about who the candidate really is and what is her/his situation?
I think that it is better to focus the early assessment phase and the interview more on questions about personality, interests of the person than their social presence. After all, making a lot of funny Tik Tok videos, doesn't make a person silly or stupid or not accountable, as well as being so present on LinkedIn with a lot of "professional opinions and links" does not say much about the professionally of the candidate.
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