More employers use social networks to check out applicants

Most job applicants have a general checklist before a job interview — updating their résumé, ironing a professional outfit, rehearsing an explanation for those two years spent bumming around after college. However, if tidying up the Facebook profile isn’t on that list, maybe it should be.

According to a new study conducted by Harris Interactive for CareerBuilder.com, 45 percent of employers questioned are using social networks to screen job candidates — more than double from a year earlier, when a similar survey found that just 22 percent of supervisors were researching potential hires on social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Read full article>>