Social Media Synthesis Essay: College Admissions Officer

The use of social media by colleges and employers may increase as time goes on. Although some may say people have a right to personal business, it is not personal if it is posted to the public. To avoid people from looking at one’s social media, keep the page

Olivia Perkins writes in “More Than Half of Employers Now Use Social Media to Screen Job Candidates, Poll Says; Even Send Friend Requests”, the do’s and don’ts for creating the perfect profile. According to Perkins, interviewers prefer applicants with social media accounts over applicants without them (line 8), just to give an extra bit of knowledge to who the applicant truly is. This article relates to articles “Student Awareness of the Use of Social Media Screening by Prospective Employers” by Terri Root and Sandra McKay and “The Law and Social Media in Hiring” by Johnathon Segal because all three use a mass number of stats and percentages in their writing. “60 percent are looking for information that supports their qualifications for the

The article “Will Your Social Media Negatively Affect Your Engineering Degree Application?” Written by Caitlin Leonard starts off by stating that social media is a tool, a way to communicate and a source of entertainment with current and tech-savvy engineering students are often some of the most prevalent users. Then the writing states that social media is used keep up with friends and family, learn about the latest discoveries or breakthroughs in technology or view and share opinions on changes in the political sphere. The writing then declares that social media is essential for students applying for undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Then it states how Kaplan Test Prep’s took a survey on over 350 colleges and found out that the percentage of admissions officers who check applicants’ social media profiles has dipped to 35 percent versus 40 percent last year.

The Kaplan test, a telephone questionnaire, surveyed many admission officers who reported checking social media posts… [ which] negatively impacted a prospective student’s admission chances (Lytle 1). Not only has

Natasha Singer finds the use of social media in college admissions to be unreasonable, when it can actually be very helpful in selecting wise and respectful students. On an application, a student may seem like the picture of perfection, when in fact they can easily be found drinking or scattering slander regarding not only their peers, but their professors. A superficial investigation into social media can quickly reveal such ugly truths. Though many prospective

Stevie Nicks, a famous singer songwriter, once said “Little girls think it's necessary to put all their business on Myspace and Facebook, and I think it's a shame... I'm all about mystery.” A lot of people across the U.S. have a form of social media and can put any information they want out for the public to see. Once something is put on the internet anyone has access to it, and people are putting a lot of their personal information out there for others to see. A problem that has arisen from this is that employers are using social media to determine hires.

First of all, your social media can affect the college you want to go to. According to Slade, “Of 381 college admissions officers who answered a Kaplan telephone questionnaire this year, 31 percent said that they had visited an applicant’s Facebook or other social media page to learn more about them”.

Social networking has become so popular in this day and age, not just for the younger generations but throughout our every day life. Many do not know that more and more employers are using many of these social media sites to find and seek out your personal page that has nothing to do with your workspace to help assist their decision for hiring you. As CEO Tom Demello said in 2009 “I think that some of these sites out there are going to be the most expensive free websites to their career that they’ve ever seen.”

Businesses should not play it safe when it comes to their employees. It might cause their image to be jeopardized. Social media is a very powerful way to identify if the person is professional or not. It is important for companies to search future employees social media to determine if their eligible for the job. The reasons are because the employer need to protect the company’s image, they also need to be sure on who they’re hiring, and they need to feel comfortable with the choice that they’re going make. In addition, businesses have the right to search social media for future employments because professional businesses can’t hire unprofessional people to their company.

For example, during interviews employers may not ask questions regarding race, religion, sexual preferences, or marital status” (p. 568). Age, disability, and other protected characteristics such as pregnancy or illness may also be available on social media (Radogna, 2011). All of the aforementioned information is easily accessible thanks to social media, but what should be used and what is off limits and how valuable is the information? Employers are not prohibited from learning protected class information, but they are prohibited from considering protected class information when making hiring and employment decision (Mooty, 2013). As an employer it is difficult to prove that learned information did not affect your decision, so it is best to prevent learning protected class information if possible. There have not been enough studies to concretely state the value of social media and its relevance in the hiring process. The information on social media is generally posted by the account owner or items that a “friend” tags an individual in or shares to the user’s page. To an extent the account owner can limit what is and is not available and has the responsibility to monitor and maintain that information, but does not provide tangible information on workplace performance.

Research suggests that up to 91% of employers now use social sites such as MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and LinkedIn to screen job applicants.

Social media has many unique uses, and is an invaluable tool. While it can be harmful, and even dangerous, when you understand how to use it and what it should be used for it can greatly enhance your life. One of the many ways social media is beneficial is that it can help students who have just graduated from college find a job. There are hundreds of networking sites out there that a student can use to get there resume in front of the right people, and even doing something as simple as creating a blog about your job search and skill set can mean the difference between getting hired a month after graduation and a year after graduation.

Social media has changed the way businesses work and recruit for new employees. Once hiring managers get a hold of resumes, they look for ways to exclude

Colleges and employers are now using Facebook and other social networking sites to gather information about prospective students and hires. When you apply for Graduate Schools, the admissions department will most likely be viewing your Facebook page at some point to try and learn a more about you. Since we know that nowadays having a “private” page is in fact very far from having actual “privacy,” many departments will be able to view profiles. It was found that about 21% of all college admissions departments in the United States are now using social networking sites as an assessment tool for prospective students compared to 0% just a few years ago (Barnes).

Employers use social media to determine your qualifications, your professionalism in terms of social conduct, and your fit into their company’s culture. You can show your prospective employer who you outside of your résumé, cover letter, and interview, for you can display your personality, your accomplishments, your strengths, and your weaknesses. From your use of social media, employers can determine: