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10 Percent of Young Social Media Users Have Been Rejected for Jobs Because of Posts

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Everyone who has both access to the Internet and a job has heard this advice: watch what you post online, or you could wind up in a very different sort of line, clutching your pink slip. Knowing better, of course, doesn’t always translate into doing better — a fact that a staggeringly high percentage of young Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest users can attest to personally, according to a recent survey from On Device Research.

The survey polled 6,000 users, aged 16-34, in six different countries. One in ten reported losing out on a job opportunity because representatives of the hiring company found something they didn’t like on the candidate’s social media accounts.

The offending posts weren’t necessarily scandalous, either. CNET reports that a 24-year-old high school teacher named Ashley Payne lost her job after posting a photo of herself holding a beer and a glass of red wine.

With this information, you’d think everyone would be more careful about what they post online — but you’d think wrong.

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“What’s odd is that despite this knowledge that companies can reject them for as little as a photo of them drinking, about two-thirds of those surveyed didn’t seem to care that their job prospects could be hurt by social media,” wrote Barbara E. Hernandez at NBC Bay Area. “Instead, it’s more important to communicate with friends.”

Tell Us What You Think

Have you ever gotten fired over something you posted on social media? We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or join the discussion on Twitter.

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(Photo Credit: _Max-B/Flickr)

Jen Hubley Luckwaldt
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