Think before you post! It may hurt your hiring prospects

In interviews, people are at their best behaviour. But on social media, they can be sarcastic and rude

NEW DELHI: Debating on social media? Beware, it may not go down well with your prospective employer.

Companies these days are extensively using Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Pintrest and Instagram to gauge the real side of the applicant.

“In interviews, people are at their best behaviour. But on social media, they can be sarcastic ,” said Tarun Katyal, chief HR officer at MTS India. “One may not lose the job opportunity unless his/her social media behaviour is extremely poor.”

While established companies deploy several measures, such as hiring detective agencies for background checks, startups generally use social media.

“Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin are becoming great source of information. We can get a fair insight into various personality traits — how they react, engage, resonate to situations and events in real life rather than hypothetical situations,” said Puneet Kapoor, director at epharmacy startup Bigchemist.com.

Large companies, however, do not always depend on socia media. “While we are not extra cautious about the personality that candidates show on socia media, our idea is to watch them rather than act on it,” said Biplob Banerjee, executive vice-presi dent, HR at Jubilant Foodworks Ltd, operator of Dunkin’ Donuts and Domino’s Pizza in India. “We have observed that social media behaviour has moved from texts to pictures and videos. We are still trying to understand how to read into it, and the next stage.”

For certain firms it is unethica to seek details about a candidate’s personal life.

“We feel it is inappropriate to seek information about workers private lives as social media is an informal medium and its use is relatively relaxed,” said Harkira Singh, MD, Woodland.