Don't Fear The Future: Using Instagram As A Recruiting Tool

By now, most employers recognize that they shouldn't peek at the social-media profiles of applicants for all sorts of reasons. It's sort of like driving past an applicant's house hoping that you can catch a glimpse of their private life through their front window. While in most states that might be legal, it's a pretty stupid idea.

Besides being generally creepy, you'd probably be very embarrassed if you got caught; and most importantly, you might learn things about your applicant that you'd rather not have known at the time you are making the hiring decision. After all, a rejected applicant won't have a successful discrimination claim if you can prove you didn't even know they were in a particular protected class, but if the applicant can show that you peeked at their Instagram profile and learned they were in that class, it's a whole different story.