It’s becoming an increasingly common storyline - job candidate loses job opportunity because prospective boss finds unflattering information online. If you think you might be in the job market any time soon, or ever really, be sure that you think twice before you post anything online. This applies to photos, comments on blogs, tweets — anything that can be linked back to you. Even small bits of information or comments that you feel are innocuous could count against you with future employers. This doesn’t mean you have to avoid all online activity, just be careful and thoughtful about the image you send to anyone who wants to know more about you.

A stunning statistic:

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.

The research comes from interviews with over 1,200 hiring and recruitment managers and 1,200 consumers in the United States, the U.K., Germany and France.

The results of the research reveal what you post on the Internet and what people post about you can affect your professional life. Have a look at the complet survey:

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