Unintended consequences of a digital presence: Employment-related implications for job seekers

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how job seekers’ digital profile influences employment-related outcomes, namely recommendations on hiring and salary.

A sample of 118 job seekers sharing information online about job searching was identified using a social networking platform. Using an impression management (IM) framework, two research assistants coded for use of verbal IM (e.g. utterances) and the use of nonverbal IM (e.g. professional images). Three HR managers evaluated the profiles and provided hiring-related recommendations. Data were analyzed used OLS moderated regression and simple slope analysis.

Consistent with IM theory, use of verbal and nonverbal IM were both positively related to employment-related recommendations. Gender was found to moderate the use of IM utterances and employment-related recommendations in an unexpected direction for women.

Findings suggest that an IM framework can be applied to studying digital social spaces of job seekers. The study provides evidence in support of the notion that previously established effects of IM efforts extend from an interview setting to a digital context.