As the Christmas Party season hits full swing jobseekers are urged to keep their Facebook profiles consistent to help applications.

Societal Web expert William Buist told OnRec that jobseekers are putting potential careers at risk by not being aware of the visibility of their social network accounts.

Naïve job seekers are unaware of how visible there social networking profiles are and what potential employers can see - made worse by the glut of dubious festive photos which could be made available to the public at any time.

So although a person may have a great CV and cover letter, companies may take to the web to look at profiles and find a different portrait of candidates painted.

William Buist said "Imagine a company you have applied to have been impressed by your CV and are thinking about interviewing you, so they run a quick search across most of the social media sites on which they know you are likely to be present. On Ecademy, they find you a keen and open businessman sharing business knowledge and demonstrating your skills and experience well.

"On LinkedIn, your CV is consistent with everything they've read on your paper CV and from the recruitment agency that sent you. On Facebook, they find a link to some pictures on Flickr that show you being ill after a night of drinking in Central London. On Twitter they hear you chatting about a company you worked for and were sacked from, the sacking isn't mentioned elsewhere.

"If they don't ask you for interview, you won't ever know that it was this lack of consistency online that caused the problem, but this scenario is far more common than most people like to think."