In a recent survey of over 1,000 HR professionals, 64 per cent of them said they considered it appropriate to search the web for information on a job candidate – and 41 per cent of them had rejected a candidate on this basis!

In a parallel survey of jobseekers, only 37 per cent of them thought it was their responsibility to protect their online reputation.

This issue is mentioned in a previous post about personal branding. I suspect Googling candidates will become even more commonplace – especially for senior or public roles.

John Lees makes the same point in an article in the last issue of People Management: “think carefully about entries on social networking sites”. Talking about being memorable, he also makes the comment that “It’s vital you manage the things people say about you when you’re not in the room.” If someone’s found an embarrassing picture of you on Facebook, what’s that going to do to your chances of getting that job or promotion?