This excellent article comes from the Times Online and discusses how online social networking can damage employment prospects in the UK. While we’ve touched upon this topic before - particularly how it pertains to job applicants in the US - the stats and information provided in this piece are noteworthy for job applicants in the UK. According to the article’s sources:

Checking social networking sites was routine for recruiters

Almost two thirds (62 per cent) of British executives were signed up to Facebook, MySpace or another social networking site

One in five employers admitted that they used the sites to search for information on candidates and looked at how they projected themselves.

Almost two thirds said the information they found there influenced a recruitment decision, while a quarter said that they had changed their mind and decided not to hire someone because of what was online.

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