Comment: The Facebook dilemma - no hobbies, no opinions

Ready to upload a graphic account of the weekend on to your Facebook profile? Not so fast.

A leading recruitment firm has cautioned that online social networking could seriously damage your career prospects, and urged those looking for a new job to be careful how much of their personal life was on public view.

Badenoch & Clark, an international consultancy that places thousands of professional staff in jobs every year, said that checking social networking sites was routine for recruiters.Its research found that almost two thirds (62 per cent) of British executives were signed up to Facebook, MySpace or another social networking site, so were well equipped to dig the digital dirt on that apparently ideal candidate.

One in five employers admitted that they used the sites to search for information on candidates and looked at how they projected themselves, another survey, conducted by the networking site Viadeo, found.

Almost two thirds said the information they found there influenced a recruitment decision, while a quarter said that they had changed their mind and decided not to hire someone because of what was online.

Andy Powell, a director at Badenoch & Clark, said it was all too easy to forget that the internet was a public place and prospective employers were only a few clicks away.

“First it was just a Google search, but more and more employers are looking at Facebook and MySpace. There are 10 million British people on MySpace so it’s inevitable that there is a drift towards looking at these sites,” he said.

“Most people have many elements to their online presence, but they don’t all necessarily show us in the best light. More employers are taking note of ‘net reputation’ so it is right to be a bit careful.”

However, Mr Powell said that it would be a shame if people stopped using social networking sites for fear of damaging their prospects. “At its best, a good profile page can show a broad network of friends and interests, creativity and good internet skills,” he said. Not all companies are delving into the sites. Some are even trying to make a virtue out of promising not to. Sainsbury's has a policy of not checking profiles on Facebook. Donna Miller, European director at Enterprise Rent-A-Car, recently argued that looking up applicants online was like “going into somebody’s house and searching their cupboards”. Existing checks were sufficient, she said.

Facebook was launched four years ago today and has 62 million users worldwide, 3.5 million in Britain. MySpace, owned by News Corporation, parent company of The Times, is nine years old this month and even bigger, with 200 million accounts worldwide, 10 million in Britain.

Five Facebook don’ts

— Posting pictures of your debauched, drunken parties is the most obvious way to put off a new employer

— Another taboo is complaining about your current job, boss or colleagues, or making disrespectful remarks about your company

— Details of romantic trysts or gossiping about your friends’ love lives also looks unimpressive when viewed by a third party

— Spending work time signing up new friends online or “poking” old ones will not be considered a good use of company time

— You might think you can remove incriminating pictures and evidence, but compromising images could be cached or stored, making them almost impossible to get rid of