Collegiate Times

Nearly 40 percent of companies use social networks to research potential job candidates, according to a recent survey from CareerBuilder.com.

Roy Baladi, CEO of FreshGrad.com acknowledged that social media plays a part in the hiring process for marketing roles at the New York based career placement website.

A candidate’s presence on Facebook is used to see how well connected he or she is, and how well he or she communicate, Baladi said. “It’s about user engagement to what [they] write, and how that content is presented.”

Facebook may factor into the hiring process at FreshGrad, but for Steve Choquette, Strategic Planner at IBM and occasional IBM recruiter at Virginia tech, social networks serve little purpose aside from a way to put a name with the face while recruiting potential job candidates.

“[Facebook pages] are definitely a supplement and certainly not the core,” Baladi said. “It’ll be viewed to find extra information.”

But, some students are wary of this trend.

“Facebook profiles should be private,” said Caleb Lee, sophomore majoring in business. “I want to keep my personal life separate from work.”

A version of this article appeared in the Sep 13 issue of the Collegiate Times.