mrpbps's posterous

Online reputation is becoming inseparable from the other ways in which employers and professional contacts judge us. In a challenging economic environment where job hunting is top of mind and online information is playing a pivotal role in the hiring process.

 Our study found 70% of surveyed HR professionals in U.S. (41% in the UK) have rejected a candidate based on online reputation information. Reputation can also have a positive effect as in the United States, 86% of HR professionals (and at least two thirds of those in the U.K. and Germany) stated that a positive online reputation influences the candidate’s application to some extent; almost half stated that it does so to a great extent.

To mark the 4th Annual Data Privacy Day Microsoft has released details of a survey conducted with a range of HR professionals and job seekers in the US, UK, Germany and France. The survey makes concrete what has been spoken about for some time now regarding the need to guard your online reputation jealously. For those yet to dip their toe in a personal online milieu the disadvantage of not building an online persona is also highlighted.

The report can be found here http://www.microsoft.com/privacy/dpd/research.aspx and a vox pop video with some US citizens speaking about online reputation can be fund at http://www.microsoft.com/showcase/en/us/details/96179773-76fc-407f-b945-ae828... .