Recruiters Discriminated against me because I did not have enough Facebook friends! (employment, apply) - Job Search -Interviews, resumes, recruiters, and more - City-Data Forum

On Vacation · 07-20-2012, 05:08 AM

I am unemployed and aggressively looking for a new job. I have been working with local employment agencies which seem to dominate the recruiting for people from my career field, high level Administrative Support Professionals. (I was an Executive Assistant and Office Manager before I lost my job.)

Something really strange has happened to me at a few of the employment agencies I have applied at and I wanted your feedback: The recruiters told me they check all customers social media presence and after looking at my Facebook page they determined I was wrong because I did not have enough friends! They also checked my Linkedin page and determined I did not have enough connections.

I told them I was relatively new to social media and did not have enough time to collect the large number of connections that many people do but assured them I was social and understood the need to be socialable and friendly to my coworkers because business is about relationships. That did not do the trick and I am not being helped by these key employment agencies anymore.

So have you experienced this before? Your value as a job applicant is based on your presence on social media sites.

Mystique13 · 07-20-2012, 05:12 AM

That's very stupid. Find agencies who have mature recruiters, not immature.

On Vacation · 07-20-2012, 05:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mystique13

That's very stupid. Find agencies who have mature recruiters, not immature.

I am in a smallish town and these recruiters are very powerful and dominate the market. I have experienced this with HR people and hiring managers too.

crankywithakeyboard · 07-20-2012, 05:56 AM

I don't see things changing for you if these are the main recruiters unless you move to a bigger town. Sorry for the situation. That sucks. And I agree, these people are totally stupid.

DrEarth · 07-20-2012, 06:19 AM

Wow, that is crazy! What if you had no social media? I suppose that would probably be worse in their eyes.

jman07 · 07-20-2012, 06:44 AM

Thats scarey! I don't have many connections on either!

cafepithecus · 07-20-2012, 06:49 AM

That's bizarre. In my field, you get looked at a little better if you don't have any social media accounts at all.

dspguy · 07-20-2012, 06:54 AM

New business idea:

Pay $50 and you'll be setup with a facebook account with just the right amount of friends so you look good to employers when they check on you.

manderly6 · 07-20-2012, 07:22 AM

This seems a bit hard to believe.

Rambler123 · 07-20-2012, 08:14 AM

Even if the OP is making it up, this is within the realm of believable for modern corporate hiring practices. Keep in mind, the "job creators" have already happily banned the unemployed from finding work in many places ("no unemployed need apply") and feel they have a right to gain full control over your Facebook account to "make sure you have the right beliefs and types of friends," as based upon the furor a few months back where companies demanded social media passwords of job candidates.

So, in a fascist state run by corporate greed, refusing to hire a person because "they don't have enough friends" sounds about right... this may be a joke post today, but it wouldn't surprise if this has already happened in reality even if the victim didn't know about it.