Online self reported information: Facebook, a hiring tool for businesses

Recently, the Internet has become a potential tool for employers to use during the hiring process with recruitment and selection. Online personalized resources like: blogs, personal websites, online portfolios, and social networking sites have opened the doors to a whole new medium for gathering information on potential employees.;The purpose of this study is to explore to what extent content from an online self reported profile, Facebook, influences companies hiring decisions. The study attempts to uncover what information on a Facebook profile is meaningful or useful to a company and if this information is used to infer or assess an individual\u27s lifestyle or personality.;One hundred companies were selected from participants who recruited at the Iowa State University Fall 2006 Career Fair. Each participant was asked to voluntarily fill out a questionnaire. From those companies sampled, 30% of them use Facebook to lookup potential employee candidates