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Online Nicknames Google better than Real?
An anonymous reader writes "I was recently laid off, and during several of the interviews looking for a new job as a mid level IT manager, I was asked "So, I can just Google your name and find some of your work?" The answer is "yes", but searching for my name doesn't really bring up many results compared to searching for my online nickname which I have been using for about a decade. I am very tempted just to put that nickname on my resume. Is the professional, albeit technical, world ready for this step? Where should I put it? At the top or somewhere in the body?" And the other problem- how hard will it be to get a job when your nickname is something ridiculous. Boy I wish I would have thought of that in 95 ;)
i tried to get a position with the mafia - and i couldn't figure out why it didn't work out. it's all clear now.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
Personally, I dislike the fact that a person could search some of my online names and figure out quite a bit about 'me'. Early in the 'net years, I decided to have a name that was pretty unique. These days I actually regret it. Now I change my persona now and then.
My current employer googled my email address, found my LiveJournal and read the previous two years or so of what I'd been writing.
It actually helped them decide to choose me, since there are lots of questions you can't ask in an interview, but reading a LJ gives a more accurate representation of a person, anyway.
Check out my sysadmin blog!
Would you let us know your 'ridiculous' nickname please? We'll promise not to laugh!
Mr. Anderson, it does not matter how often you change your persona, you are the only one we know who likes the gay midget goat pr0n.
your name. I happen to have the last name that is the same as the stage name of a popular porn actress, and my first and middle name happen to coincide with the first and last name of a male porn star she frequently stars with. So 90%+ of the stuff that comes up when you search for my name on google is porn......
Monstar L
As when you tell your boss that you want to play with the GIMP for a couple of hours. You have to be suttle.
Seriously, if a company asks you this kind of crap, you'd better run and find a more serious one.
My original online nick was Basilita, which immediately had men hitting on me, so it rapidly changed to Downes, my last name, but an IRC netsplit kept having me colliding with myself, so I shortened it to Down. Then the band Down came out, and all of their fanboys kept asking if I was part of "the band" and at the same time I was starting help with Enoch Linux (now Gentoo) and doing a lot of tinkering with AMIX and OpenBSD so I appended Linux into my name, hence, Downix.
And I jst googled myself. Only 997 entries for me.
Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.
I went to a job interview and got asked questions that could only have come from a google search. Very dangerous given that my name is relatively common and there is no clear way to know how much they read and attributed to me really was written by me. How much di they read that wasn't brought up in the interview for me to confirm or refute?
It's relatively standard practice to list any aliases you have used on a resume. That way an employer can check references better if you previously used your maiden name, or everyone in a previous job knew you as "Spike." So yes, list your online handles/nicknames/etc. near the top of the resume with your standard personal info.
Always use an online alias and don't use the same email address on your resume that you use online. Then, put urls directly to the content you want them to see on your resume (instead of letting them Google to find your work). If you're referenced on the website(s) as your alias, put a note on your resume about the alias (if it's not offensive or too silly that is).
My rights don't end where your feelings begin.
There are a number of people in the wider Perl community who are basically only known by their online nick name.
One of the most proliic of such people is chromatic. Although it's his real name, brian d foy is also well known.
Anonymous coward...
You know CmdrTaco, this reminds me of the time I had to go to the doctor to seek advice about a "friend" who got crabs.
I do a pretty good job, mostly, of keeping what I do in my off-hours seperate from what I do during work hours. About the only thing that might come up if they searched for my name would be some tech notes, and possibly some interaction with vendors on bug submissions and fixes. But even the interaction with vendors tends to be layered under NDAs, so (ideally) wouldn't be available to just anyone anyway.
In my opinion, searching for a name is likely to be a waste of time. There's not a guarantee you'll come up with anything valid...and a fair chance you won't come up with much at all.
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
And I decided that writing it as 'DiSKiLLeR' was cool, once upon a time, some 14 years ago :(
You can tell how powerful someone is by the magnitude of the crime they can commit and be able to get away with.
You can see my online nick anywhere on this site or in google, and sure it links back to my name if you give a shit. So what that my online persona has achieved quite a bit in the last decade, it still isn't something to present your future employers with, no one except a hacker or amateur /.er deserves to know what my thoughts have been for 10+ years. My online persona is my personal life, and not my professional life. I'd recommend only exposing the professional side of your online activities and leave the rest to chance.
Why don't you just make sure you keep a professional interests handle and privates interests handle seperate and different. Needless to say, make your professional one your real name perhaps and stay professional there. Your private one should be hard to track down so no names or partial names.
As you can see, I chose "Anonymous Coward" for myself. Luckily it's purely my private handle, as there are some pretty damning posts under this name:)
is your mystifying use of the word "albeit." I don't think it means what you think it means.
My nickname is CrazyNiggaKilla69
I am very tempted just to put that nickname on my resume. Is the professional, albeit technical, world ready for this step?
The professional world can't stand when your real life and their little toy world-of-whoredom intersect in messy ways. When this happens, you hear about people fired for sexual harassment over a coworker uninvitedly reading your personal website or blog.
So, where should you list your online handle(s) on your resume? Nowhere! Thus the whole point of using a handle in the first place... Only an idiot would pretend it gives us true anonymity, but to a casual search for info on you, the two worlds will maintain some degree of separation. You want that effect.
Remember that once you make it to an actual interview, employers don't look for reasons to hire you, they look for reasons not to hire you. Think of it like a driving test where you start with 100 and can only go down... The less you do outside the scope of the test, the better. At your driving exam, did you ask to stop at the local head-shop to pick up some filters?
If you really feel the need to provide some online persona for an employer, make a new one. Create a cute little profile on all the big social networking sites, and post carefully censored historical details of your life.
your nickname is, say, quite common ?
http://www.google.com/search?name=f&hl=en&q=An+anonymous+reader
ccalam - acoustic versions of new songs.
I interviewed with Google once, but for some reason they turned me down...
This guy's the limit!
Been on the other side of the table lately and some of the candidates clearly Googled me. Some even mentioned it.
For myself, it felt a bit strange. But I have to admit, I'd do it if I'd be going to an interview. But, contrairy to what I experience, I'd never reveal the fact I looked up on somebody.
What is your opinion? Is it ok to do and indicate you did? Does it show you are prepared?
Just Google
...
"toon moene"
No problem
... are the better ones for that, maybe boring, and surely depends on how common is your name/surname. My nick, mail address (without the @gmail.com) and even my real life name (ok, initial of name+surname) coincide, even with different mail providers in the past, so giving your name is giving your nickname.
And of course, different people could use your nickname across different communities. So giving your nickname you could end giving the wrong references, if some of the hits points to something you dont like from someone else.
What I do online is irrelevant to what I do as a profession and I try to keep them seperated as much as possible.
However I can imagine that it IS relevant for some, especialy if you are a webdesigner or a developer, highly involved in OSS projects. I would just add them as past experience.
e.g. I have developed/designe XYZ under the alias foo@example.com
However you must also provide some proof that you actualy ARE that alias, I would say.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Interesting. I recently wrote an article on this very topic on my business blog. http://www.spinningsilkmultimedia.com/linkerjpatrick-my-personal-brand/ I'm self-employed but I'm starting to get more and more comfortable sharing a screen name I have standardized on over the years. It helps of course if the screen name is not embarrassing and is descriptive of what I would call your life mission or career passion.
Never really took online nicknames seriously. When I saw this story I did a google just out of curiousity. Amazingly, I found one forum where my email address is posted in clear text. Now that I see how easy it is to track somebody, I'm glad I never bothered entering any personal data.
Not only is someone able to find out about you, but of what others think of you along with a ton of other information you may not even be aware of as being accessible via the internet.
..... ????
There is a word..... Libel.... and now if you know you did not get the job you can pursue a legal course against
Perhaps that is something worth mentioning to any potential employer.
Perhaps its also worth mentioning or understanding if you are a potential employer.
Back in the early 90s usenet was "safe" because everyone knew that it got expired after a week or two. We all used our real names and email addresses too. Then someone found some old backup tapes 10 years later and handed them over to Google.
A friend of mine was quite a good troll back then, but now it haunts him due to his unique name. He's written Google and gotten them to delete his posts, but they won't delete other people's posts that quote him, so he's a bit screwed. I advised him to start posting lots of technical stuff to hopefully flood out the bad crap, and then write off the rest as youthful indiscretion.
Another friend who is now in his 40s got busted and convicted for dealing drugs when he was a teenager and spent a few years in jail. He's absolutely reformed now and eventually got a pardon from the governor of the state he was convicted in. He has no trouble getting a tech job these days -- except for banks. He doesn't even bother applying there.
Also, doing drugs won't stop you from being President these days, saying the wrong thing 20 years ago will.
Moral of the story, do drugs, don't talk shit on the net.
(Gawd, this tongue-in-cheek post is going to come back to haunt me someday I bet...)
Sincerely,
The Goatse guy
i win. but fortunately my real name os a tongue twister, so googling it yields an almost unique result.
If you simply can't hold it in, at least make sure that no individuals or organisations can be identified.
On a resume, or in an interview, the potential employer is interested in what you can do for them, not your personal blog or your views on personal/irrelevant topics (unless they would be incompatible with the position you are interviewing for).
As a consequence, I can see almost no situations where an employee can write about their current or past work in a way that will not compromise their future employment prospects - leave online links out of your CV
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
Then again, he may never call back.
IMHO: Reveal only if asked!
The only thing new in this world is the history that you don't know.[Harry Truman]
How about Googling for something like John Smith or John Jones (of course, there's Jim Jones, which will return some interesting historic references)? I doubt very much that any potential employer will be able to find references to your work amongst all the thousands of returns that are *not* you. So, unless you have a relatively unique name, Google isn't going to help.
As for discovering your on-line nickname, I'm sure the NSA or the FBI will happily provide the service (if they don't already).
"My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right." --Senator Carl Schurz (1872)
"We googled the internet alias that you listed, "Anonymous Coward". While we were impressed by your willingness to follow orders and submit to overlords of various types... we were a little disturbed by your fantasies involving Natalie Portman and hot grits."
"We were still considering hiring you until we happened upon the Goatse link."
As bad as it might be to not get a job, especially if you really need one now, I think it would be even worse to work for a firm that used unsubstantiated, uncorroborated online data about its potential employees to make hiring decisions. That might indicate that they make other decisions similarly. You cite the possibility of libel, but there's certainly also the possibility of eliminating a candidate for information that is unrelated to him/her in any way.
I am not a crackpot.
So much for my career aspirations at the LAPD...
How do you parse the title, when almost each word could either be a verb or a noun? :( And if "Google" is a verb there, why is it capitalized? The answers to these questions still elude me, after minutes of staring at it.
Send email from the afterlife! Write your e-will at Dead Man's Switch.
I use ClaimID to verify what belongs to me online. It's free and let's you add those things online that you authored and also note which items don't belong to you. You can then give your ClaimID URL and annotate your claimed URLs to create an online resume that presents yourself in a more polished way to a potential employer.
As ESR used to say, simply don't use nicknames. Real Hackers (tm) (c) (all rights reversed) should be proud of what they do, and therefore use their real name.
My first program:
Hell Segmentation fault
How do you prove that the alias that you list is 100% unique? While I know that my alias is unique on /., its very possible that there's someone out there that uses the same alias for blogs/usenet/WoW/Forums etc. Since there's no internationally registration of an alias, you'd have a tough time proving that HockeyPuck is me while the kiddiep0rn watching HockeyPuck(2) is not.
What the hell were your parents thinking naming you Rock Hardon Beaver?!
Especially when their last name is Goldstein...
I just googled my username. I use this username quite often, too.
There is only one entry that isn't me. See if you can guess which one it is.
1) I long ago divided my personal/hobby posts from my professional presence on the Internet. I did this when an interviewer asked for my blog address, and I realized I had just posted about how great microwavable juice concentrate was. I had been "blogging" using some Slash wannabe code I wrote myself since before the term "blog" had been coined, so I had a lot of stuff up.
I keep two blogs, use two different emails, etc. Sure, it wouldn't take much work to connect the two, but it provides some insulation between my personal and professional identities.
2) If your last name is Anderson, and your nick is Neo, keep using the nick.
I'd rather have someone respond than be modded up.
My real name is very common. Over 1 million hits, and none of them on the first few pages are me. I tried my online nickname. Over 2 million hits, 1 of them on the first page is me. wk2 is my online nickname initials.
One of the reasons I chose a common online nickname is because it is cool, and great minds think alike. The other reason is because I WANT to remain anonymous. If an employer wants to research me, they will have to ask for help. They can ask me for a starting point, and for links to my work. I don't think this has hindered me getting a job in the past, but you can never be sure.
Write your own Choose Your Own Adventure. http://www.freegameengines.org/gamebook-engine/
...3,010,000,000 hits in Google... :)
Mundus Vult Decipi
I got my nickname (see user ID) many years ago. It came from this bizarre Japanese documentary about ducks in downtown Tokyo. I still have no idea how it got attached to ME (I am neither duck-like, nor small), but it somehow did. It wasn't until later that we found out: 1) It is the Japanese word for runt and 2) We had spelled it wrong.
Regardless of all that, I kept the nickname for a while. But I've stopped using it for anything new, and started discouraging its use in conversation. When it was obscure, it was just sort of silly and whimsical. But with the rise in popularity of Anime, and particularly its popularity with pre-teens, it makes me look like some sort of sicko. I'd much rather people think I'm weird for the correct reasons.
If your name was Gary Oatse, you can imagine the looks I get. My family has a long history in the farm business raising corn.
Your nickname also could prevent you from getting a job. I'm in IT, if you Google my real name you get almost nothing. I wouldn't want to use 'Rodney Dill' on my resume.
Use your head, can't you, use your head,
You're on earth, there's no cure for that - S. Beckett
You do not want to work for a company that ask such stupid questions.
If a HR manager even considers taking into account the search results from googling somebodies name - apart from maybe that news report of his conviction of mass-murder ten years ago - he isn't the kind of guy you want to work for.
A value of someones IT work is *not* measured by what results a search of his name on google yields. I'd stear clear of any employer to dumb to realise that. A question like that would have me give a polite but firm counterquestion of wether the HR manager really needs google search results for confirmation of your competence (which you hopefully can prove otherwise).
That goes the other way around aswell: Whatever Google yields as a result for somebody I'd never take as a proof of competence. Somebody putting his nick on a resumee for me to google it would have me move him from stack #1 to stack #2 of potentials in an instant if I were doing the hire.
Make a well-built and well-designed website with well formated web-copies of all your work and add the link to your resumee. That will leave an impession.
Bottom line: A question like that proves that your potential employer has little true knowledge in the field of IT and that you're going to have a hard time explaining the basics of IT and the type of work your expected to do to your would-be superiors. It should allways set of an alarm bell.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
I don't use my real name, and I switch nicknames for different sites. This way I can't be stalked online for any reason. Sure in this specific case it might be a positive, but one can imagine many other negatives due to your online identity being revealed.
At the top of the resume:
John Q. Programmer
(internet handle: glorb the barbarian)
123 Main Street
Anytown, USA
Unless he's a real straight-laced and old-fashioned hiring manager I don't think this would hurt you, and it might help by making you stand out. Plus he's more likely to Google you out of curiosity if nothing else.
It's amazing what dirt google can find on me: 1)The one submission i've ever made to slashdot that made the front page. 2)The pot growing forums where I became a guru... Hell I needed a hobby. 3)My livejournal(Even scarier) 4)Profit!
John Walsh once found me while looking for some other kid. He was not amused.
Well that didn't work out so well...
My nick
Oops.
Brackets contain world's first nanosig, highly magnified:[.]
...than my real name. Hence, when I change my surname next year (for family reasons), I am also changing my middle name to "unfunk".
Also, I found out that the first & last name I will have when this happens is the name of a female softcore porn starlet. Stupid parents, giving me an effeminate name...
"Hi there. So I googled your name when I got your email, and obviously we won't be needing a resume. Would you like to arrange time to meet and see if we can work out an appropriate deal?"
:)
Awesome!
(posting AC to avoid looking snobby next time they do it)
Hmm, it seems like it would be rather easy to assume someone's identity, especially for totally anonymous nicknames. "Yes, I ran a major website for 10 years under the nickname CmdrTaco" - not really a great example since everybody knows his real name, but you get the idea. This actually became an issue in a different forum which I was involved with.
Wow, a hundred comments in and nobody seems to have posted from the employer side of the table. I'll do that.
;-)
It's quite simple. Put your online nickname--if the Google results are flattering. If they're not, then don't. It's really no different from anything else you'd include on your resume. Left a good job on friendly terms? Put that. Perp-walked out of a job in handcuffs? Leave that out. There's not much nuance here: If someone else shares your nickname, and that guy's a dick, you probably shouldn't put your nickname, lest you be put in the position of having to explain his posts. If you use your nickname in porn discussion forums online, leave it out.
On the other hand, maybe your nick links people to logs of great technical discussions you've participated in, on IRC. Or it links to yourself being helpful on a technical mailing list in your field of specialty, or even just yourself showing interest in your field of specialty. For pete's sake, of course you want your employer to see that. As someone who reads resumes and does interviews, that's extremely valuable information to me. I would check it on Google, and I would be interested in what I found there, and if it was positive, I would be strongly leaning toward you before I even picked up a phone to set up the interview.
--
p.s. god I love having a unique name. Thanks to my name and many years of contributions to some high-profile open source stuff, you literally have to go 15 pages deep into Google's results for my name, before you find even a single entry that's not legitimately about me. If I ever have to find another job, I can guarantee you I'll be telling people to Google me.
It's rare that you're presented with a knob whose only two positions are Make History and Flee Your Glorious Destiny.
A professional company doesn't need to see your twitty livejournal entries. They don't care who is on your myspace top 10. In a professional environment, what matters is education/training and experience. If you have a good educational background, and quality experience, you shouldn't worry about your "online" alter ego. If you're lacking in credentials, don't grasp at straws.
If there is something on the internet that you feel would make a positive impression on a prospective employer highlight it specifically in your CV.
For example:
I am an active member of the Linux community, regularly posting on the Linux Kernel mailing list. My contributions can be found at here
That way you're not relying on their detective skills to locate all the best bits, as well as there being no confusion about whether this is you or not.
I would not recommend random searching for information about people you're considering hiring as you may find out more than you wanted to know. We had a candidate at work who had put on his CV he did some LJ related programming so as this obviously implied ownership of an LJ we had a look for it. On it he expressed a love for water sports, bondage and other such activities - I'm not suggesting in the slightest that this would be a reason not to hire someone however this is information that many people keep private and which he might not have wanted to share with his future colleagues, meaning that for all his time there we would have to be careful not to make reference to it. Awkward. Luckily for us he also mentioned on his journal that he was suspended by his current employer for computer misuse and that he didn't care about our job, he was just going to scam interview expenses so we told him he'd been unsuccessful with a clear conscience.
I have always (i.e. since the late 1980'ies) assumed that everything I write online can be used against me.
This is of course obvious in places like UseNet or Slashdot, but I try to behave the same way in email or IM.
Since I've also managed to keep the same email address since 1994, and always signed Usenet posts with my full name & email, it is trivially easy to Google me. Prospective clients/employers who do so should hopefully get a good impression.
Terje Mathisen
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"
This is an interesting one.
:)
Most of the people who I've interviewed (or at least read their resumes) are pretty bland. It's their real name, list of employers, blah, blah.
Myself, the resume is the simple list of jobs, experience, etc. I try to explain as well as I can in a short form (just 4 printed pages) my history and skills.
In the resume, I have my personal site name. I use it for a lot of things. If you look at my personal site, it's kinda bare. I really only started using it a year or two ago.
On my site are two versions of my resume. In the obvious area, there is my resume with all personal and contact information redacted. It shows what I know, just nothing to identify myself.
In a obscured area there is my full resume in HTML, MSWord, and PDF. It does have my real name, address, phones, company names, references, etc. Otherwise, the content is identical. It helps to make clear that the alias site is really me. Otherwise, I could have just leeched the obscured resume and filled in my own information. Upon contacting the employers, they will usually remember that I used the alias on occasion. Most of them catch me using aliases on the phone, depending on who I'm talking to. Once I'm working somewhere, I explain my separation of real vs alias.
"A call holding on line 4? It's a cold call from a vendor we don't deal with? Thanks.
[picking up line 4]
Hi this is John, how can I help you?
My title? I'm an assistant systems administrator. Oh no, Mr Real Name isn't here, but I'll take your information and pass it on. He's out of country right now dealing with some of our [fill in BS here], but when he gets back I'm sure he'll call you.
When will he be back? I don't know. I do know it was important for him to go, but as an executive, he doesn't always tell us lowly staffers his plans."
It's funnier that people I work with will walk up and refer to me as Mr. Smythe or JW. Depending on how playful I'm feeling, sometimes I'll completely refuse to be him. Mr Who? I don't even know him.
I was smart enough to pick an alias that could be a real name. It even has a middle name, date of birth, birth place, current residence. I've used it long enough to swap back and forth fluidly, without confusing the two.
As far as anyone online is concerned, I am and always will be JW Smythe. Even if/when we meet in person, unless there's a need for a personal relationship, I will remain JW Smythe.
And most importantly (as it relates to the article), when you search for "JW Smythe" or "JWSmythe" on Google, you'll find information on myself. You won't find anything on me by searching for my real name. Well, you'll find lots (and lots) of things. Even my real name was somewhat more common, but more so in Europe.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
How many people use the nickname "Anonymous" anyhow?
I know, I'll put it in my resume. Prospective employers can google my achievements. They'll immediately see what a swell feller I am.
At the risk, if anybody cares enough, of being moderated flamebait, under 25s should be aware that the present climate of in your face me-me-me and total disclosure will not last. The problem is, once you have destroyed your privacy on the Internet, you cannot get it back. In future, privacy may be a valuable asset of the privileged- notice that the words have the same Latin root. My advice is, if you still have it, to hang onto it. If anybody asks at interview, tell them that you value your privacy and that an employer should recognise that, if you can keep your secrets, you can also be relied on to look after theirs.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Seems to work pretty well for MegaZone http://www.megazone.org/Random/MegaZone-Resume.html
... We will need a Ministry of Silly Nicks...
(\__/) This is Lapinator
(='.'=) copy it in your sig
(")_(") so it can take over the world
As someone who's interviewed technical people for jobs, esp. 10 years ago or so, it seems that most of the online nicknames would relate to "hobby" activities. Applying the same rules, that can help you or hurt you: if I like reading about your social money lending (Sydney Morning Herald - Online social money lending takes off), I may be further impressed and want to interview or hire you, but if I don't like your ability to code widgets then it won't make a difference for a technical job.
Given the upcoming ubiquity of online profiles, most people will have them from their early teens (bismarcktribune.com - Myspace generation . The rules should change as hiring managers themselves start to have online personas that cross the gray lines of hirability. So maybe people will only be judged by their LinkedIn-type postings that are meant to be for business history.
And sites like My Death Space may be joined by sites, such as one poster related to old usenet postings, that showcase frozen profiles of people who lost their passwords or account access, and stopped updating even as they continue to live on.
... is to rub their noses in it.
After being hired as a professor for a small university, someone googled me. A collegue (actually the department gossip) came to me and said in low tones "You know, they found out you belong to the Subgenius thing.".
So I went and found the most outrageous "Subgenius thing" I could, a picture of me in a pink dress, chartruse fishnet hose, a black baseball cap and cowboy boots, playing guitar on stage. I printed out the picture and put it on my door.
If they ever bothered to try to dig up dirt on me after that, they never bothered me with it. But due to this and many other actions of theirs that arise from the attitude that makes them act this way, I quit. Just like 40% of their instructors.
If anyone ever bothered me with googled info again, I'd ask them how they knew if it was real or bogus stuff put together by someone else. And THEN I'd put it on my door. Or maybe pre-empt them and put it up before they could find it.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
Yeah, this is a problem I've long considered...
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
What if your nickname is something like SexyChic14f and you're a 30 year old guy? Will that help?
How about urcreepyneighbor?
"The fight for freedom has only just begun." - Geert Wilders
Since personal brands are important and will become increasingly more important as time progresses, this sounds like a great reason to pick distinctive names for your kids. Some guidelines:
If you have an uncommon last name, congratulations. Feel free to name the little guy after Uncle Mike, John, Ted, Robert, Bill, or whomever else you like. It won't matter.
If you have a common last name, give your kids uncommon first names. My older sister married a guy with the family name Miller; they picked out distinctive first names for each of their three sons.
The first thing you should do is ask yourself whether googling for your Internet nickname would actually give the employer what they are looking for. You're applying to be a manager - what type of work did you do under your nickname that suggests managerial qualifications? Perhaps you're confusing establishing an online identity (which it sound like you did, using your nick) vs. identifying actual work relevant to the position.
That being said, I can think of a few situations where work done under a nick might be relevant to what you're trying to do - for example if you had managed an open source project under a pseudonym. In that case, you should certainly highlight that work but there are better ways to do so than putting your nick on your resume.
The easiest and best thing to do is to simply mention what you did right on your resume. If you managed an open source project, mention the project and your role on your resume. If you participated in some online management forums - to think of another example - why not just put that under the Interests area? That way you can tell the employer what you had done without making them look for it. This doesn't directly answer your question but it accomplishes the same goal.
The other thing you can do is make a professional website and mention it on your resume. The page can then link to whatever online activities you think are relevant to your goals. Mentioning a URL in the header of your resume would - I think - look more professional than mentioning a nick. It could also work even better in your favor - there could be employers out there who wouldn't bother to google your name but might follow the link you provide, and if your website reveals some strength then that's a good thing.
Finally, if you're going to be really passive aggressive and want to find ways to have the employer google your nick, you could always just place it into your email address. If you want to have them google for OpenSourceManagerDude, then try putting OpenSourceManagerDude@somedomain as your email address? This looks far less professional and is much less effective than the first two options, so I don't recommend it - just throwing it in for completeness' sake.
But again, the main thing you need to do is confirm in your mind that googling for your nickname would actually bring up the type of information that would tell an employer you're going to be a good manager. It's not clear to me how that could be.
http://ed.markovich.googlepages.com
So much for my chances of finding a job in the future...
"pr0n": An anagram of "porn," possibly indicating the use of pornography. - www.microsoft.com
Collect your online work into your own portfolio and put that online (with the URL on your resume). That way many employers will see your work without all the crap that might show up in a Google search. If they want to Google you anyway then they will and you can't control that, but putting your best work forward might satisfy their curiosity or at least draw a line between what you're serious about and what you've put on the web as part of your personal life. If you give your employer enough information to get a good picture of you, they likely won't look much further. And a portfolio gives you control over what they'll see.
I'd have to tell any hiring manager asking about my accomplishments being listed on google to get bent.
1. My primary job function has nothing to do with SEO.
2. Even if it did have to do with SEO, why would I be required to optimize myself on google? I already wrote up a resume that optimizes my prior work history and experience exactly as I want it to appear.
3. I use no less than 3 online nicknames specifically to decentralize/distribute the ability for people to know everything that I do simply by tracking a single nickname.
Seriously, I would never put an online nickname on a resume just because of some retarded hiring manager that thinks he's techno-smart for googling an applicant.
Protector of Capitalist views,
Meorah
What if you've switched or currently use more than one nickname online? I've been using CrazyP since 1998, but recently have switched to using another nick, though still use CrazyP very often...
How do you take a picture of the best moment of your life?
Unique is good.
A profound clash on the net is between "goofing off" and building net credibility. For the occasional snark comment, that's what AC is for. I have put a fair amount of effort into this "brand name" to ensure that it's reasonably respected.
However, I still wouldn't actively disclose it to any employer. I consider it in the realm of private research mixed with entertainment. If an employer needs to know what my successes at work are - let's have them talk to a previous employer! A former manager who liked you is a far better reference than miscellanea on the net.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Mr. Anderson: So what? You played a drag queen in the Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
I suppose it all depends on what your potential employer might find when they Google your nickname.
Have gnu, will travel.
I got pretty lucky early on when I mapped out my strategy ten years ago. Many small organizations post member names these days because it makes them feel "with it". Your name can pop up all over now - maybe a paintball tourney, some civics group you attended for a year, etc.
I'd rather know ahead of time that someone is planning a Net search so that my second round answers will be sensible, rather than getting decked with some loaded question like "So, been to any Birch meetings lately?"
On one activity that I felt would one year show up in an employer question, I tagged my real name onto it. Random recreations are under an alias for a reason. If an employer went through the modest amount of work to figure it out, then a previous poster is right - it's a bad sign for the employer as a snoop.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Well, except for slashdot, but that's because I signed up when I was still in high school and didn't really give it much thought. Elsewhere, I use my real name or "kisielk". Why? I figure that in today's world, communication online carries much the same weight as communication offline. I treat it and much the same way, and act with the same degree of responsibility.
You mean this guy?
...
Mickey E. Suttle is a controversial and infamous self-proclaimed Star Wars fan who posts so-called Star Wars news, images and FAQs on his website, supershadow.com almost every day, using the nickname of SuperShadow. Many of his claims, most notably that he is friends with George Lucas and possesses advanced copies of screenplays, have made him a controversial figure among Star Wars fans.
The Whois service reveals that supershadow.com is owned by Mickey Suttle, of Hickory, North Carolina, who also appears to own a law firm. His location is also stated on FindLaw. [source?] The owner of the SuperShadow.com domain also owns MickeySuttle.com
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
I'd change the part about the "obvious coke addiction I don't ever want to do anything about" on your webpage too.
Unlike slashdot, your employer won't take your site linked in your sig.
Or your name is more unique than your nick handle.
Name + Surname or just Surname = first on google
Nickname = 15th and only due to higher ranking caused by third party.
Google search is based on keywords. Better keyword wins.
Find out the *BAD* stuff they'll find, and see if there's any way you can mitigate it.
/. nick at all, anywhere on it. Spooky.)
For example, I have had four different online nicknames/handles over the years, and there is one I most certainly would *NOT* give to an employer. I'm not even sure I'd mention the one I use here. (In fact, I'm posting anonymously specifically because a quick Google Search on my username here shows that it's already linked to my real life name in more than one location. The top hit is even my company's website, that doesn't list my
Is there a such thing as a non-ridiculous online name?
Most of the ones I run across are pretty silly.
ft
presence was enough but its NOT.
Unfortunately I have MS and, now that I "schlep" around with a cane, it shows.
Now my 'net presence shows that I'm a pretty radical guy (and getting more radical by the day, not physically dangerous, but definitely radical) but I'm now definitely a 15%er*, and worse, than that I'm old** in a young man's game.
Its not easy fighting people's perceptions when you've become imperceptible to them.
Well, as someone I once knew use to say: "Fuck 'em where they breathe!"
* the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 15% of the population is disabled to some degree.
The individuals may change in distress and severity but 15% if the population is going through those doors, on a stretcher. (MS is 0.0833% of the population, 1 in 1,200, so I'm really behind the eight ball.)
** I was born in 1953. I was already doing IT when it was called MIS and I'm almost older that the first computer language (FlowCode) and my career started before relational calculus and relational data bases. That gives me perspectives that inform me, not just a bunch of boring "war stories", when I design and develop software.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
My advice is:
...) and learn how to network
* Use a real name and optionally nicknames that map easily to your real name
* get a website, now
* make sure all your nicknames are associated with your site where your real name is visible
* List your website prominently in your CV
* Give examples of your work on your CV with URLs
* Enter into various professional societies (eg I'm in IEEE Engineering Management Society, ACM, BCS, ACS, IET, Chartered Management Institute,
* Enter into professional social networking sites like LinkedIn
* Make sure your fellow members in societies and social networking sites are aware when you go job-hunting
* A webpage which is entirely professional smells like lies. Always put facts about your personality and hobbies in your webpages, eg explain your love with poetry, software programming, etc. Do *not* separate your personal and professional lives, as you should be proud for both of them.
* Unless you are in great financial need, you should carefully choose your employer: If you work for someone who has very different and incompatible personality with you, then problems will occur. Try to find employers who share your views, eg if you like free software go work for a free software shop rather than a closed-source megacorp. This means that you *want* to put facts about your personal life and opinions in your webpages, to enable incompatible employers to self-filter themselves out. It's better to not take up a job with a culturally incompatible employer rather than take it and quit or get laid off after a week because of personality clashes with your boss!
* Don't care that much about what others think about you, be yourself and enjoy company with people similar to you. If I go hiring, I would prefer a person who is not afraid to state their opinions and hobbies freely and proudly, rather than a drone who has learnt to think like a slave and believes that they need to project a specific image to the world rather than their true self.
* Print out a Google results page for a term, eg 'management expert', and show it off along your CV if any of your webpages make it to the first page
* If you fail at something in your career and you are asked about it, say what you learnt from it and how it made you a better professional. Don't hide up facts.
And my best advice is:
* Start your own business: Self-create your success rather than wait for others to give it to you s a ready meal!
Someone, quick, mod him down, in order to fuck with his "net credibility"!
Now I really feel old. Anyone else here who remembers the times when nicknames were used to cover your real identity, instead of just being either a cooler name than your parents thought of or a necessary evil because "yourname@aol.com" was already taken?
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
I have email addresses for each of my "suppliers' by supplier; one for [bank name], one for ... and I even put them on separate ISPs.
Its easier to separate the idiotic spam and "Nigerian Scams" from the serious fuckers that I want my financial institutions to follow up on.
Rock on.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
That will probably get me modded up, thank you.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
http://www.google.com/search?name=f&hl=en&q=Anonymous+Coward
Of course.
"You can't be famous & anonymous at the same time".
With the rise of the Culture of Faux Friends it's easy to become quite confused.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
A friend of mine was quite a good troll back then, but now it haunts him due to his unique name. He's written Google and gotten them to delete his posts, but they won't delete other people's posts that quote him, so he's a bit screwed.
Been there. I wasn't a troll, but I'd like to have my relatively geeky interests completely separated from any attempts at getting a job or other forms of interfacing with "the norms." I've also strongly considered a run for political office in the future and need these things separated just in case.
So, I've tried the same bit, but there's one post out there were someone quoted my sig where I listed my real name and my alias. I fear that that'll bite me one day. Fortunately, there are at least three people who use my nick, so I may be able to muddy the waters. Unfortunately, they all have the same geeky interests, so it doesn't matter much.
Anyhow, posting AC for obvious reasons.
You could solve your dilema by legally changing your birth name to your nickname. That's what I did after a co-worker pointed out: 5,000,000 women change their name each year. It was surprisingly easy.
I think it depends on how tech and web savvy the company that you're applying to is. If you're applying for a job with an insurance company, bank, or other massive mega corp (even if they're a tech shop) it would probably hurt more than help since you have no way of knowing if the HR drone reading it knows the difference between a Mac and a PC. When you go to list a handle on your resume, you're depending on the person reading to know a) what it is and b) what to do about it. It's a big risk.
Now, if you're applying to a smaller company, one that is extremely tech savvy, I think it could help a lot.
I landed my current job in large part to the name I've built for myself online over the last decade. Of course, the job is all about online and community presence, so that's a bit of a different story, but it would have helped me with this company no matter the specific job.
The best idea I saw in the discussion was to go around yourself, collect all your favorite "Me" links from Google and then put together an online portfolio of sorts on a personal website. That way you can provide the link on your resume, and then very directly control what information they see if they look you up that way. It's all about controlling your virtual image, and this may be the best way to do it.
Putting an online ID _that accurately reflects who you are_ on a resume is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. Would you seriously really want to work at a place that WOULDN'T hire you just because you gave them an online ID (if it gives them a more accurate picture of your skills and who you are)? If you think you want to work at such a place, you are probably applying to the wrong jobs anyway (or posting things very orthogonal to your "true" self). Remember, the process works both ways and you can use what you put in your resume (when done reasonably) as a "who do I want to work with" filter. Accepting a job is supposed to be a two way street.
i\hbar\dot{\psi}=\hat{H}\psi
-- http://thegirlorthecar.com funny dating game for guys
My real name show couple hundred thousand results. Of course my name is middle and last name of a well known author. Trying to find me in that mess is a mess.
I think I'll keep my real name on my Resume thanks.
OSGGFG - Open Source Gamers Guide to Free Games
I always use my real name when I post online.
Whoa. I'm the One?
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
Or maybe it wouldn't...
My username, GWBasic, is an old version of Basic used on DOS-based computers before QBasic and Visual Basic. For some reason, my personal home page shows up when someone googles for "GWBasic." Occasionally, I get emails looking for tech support...
No, I will not work for your startup
That's the whole reason I use a handle: It gives a bit of separation between online and real life. Nothing that would stop anyone who really wants to find out who is behind it, of course, I have friends who know my online handle and real name, there's information on the net that will lead you to my real name, and so on. However it means that someone has to give a shit beyond casually typing my name in to Google and seeing what comes up. Do that, and pretty much all you get is websites of places I used to work.
... if this story is true.
Since I've always followed this simple rule, there is nothing on the net that I'm ashamed to claim as my own but any interviewer who asked me a question about anything would terminate the interview right then with sorry sir but as the net is not under my control and your question in reference to someone's online comments/thoughts indicates to me that this is not a company I desire to work for and I'd walk out the door. I might take the afterwards to fire off a letter (hardcopy) to the CEO about the interviewers inappropriate question and that due to it, he lost at least one potential employee who may have been able to contribute significantly to the company and the worst of this is that I've actually responded this way.
Sorry to say the salary figure was quite nice but after being asked a question like that, I terminated the interview, picked up my resume and left and yes I wont leave a resume behind if I terminate the interview because I've made the decision that I wont work for them and don't want them to contact me or share my information with another company as they're suggestions are no longer worth my while.
Mod me up/Mod me down: I wont frown as I've no crown
If you're in a technical position why would a person hiring you care of your 'search engine presence'? I would think your name showing up on a search engine would mean you have a habit of running your mouth (a bad thing in the business world). Someone who talks too much would/could divulge company info. My name comes up but only for 2 links. It had to do with me asking a technical question on a forum using my real name which is something I never do anymore.
Well, anyone can get someone to say they are great, and I would seek that if I were an employer. However, as an employer I would also see if I could get a more unbiased view of a person. Also, I'd prefer if the candidate had an online presence as that would tell me that the person has opinions, passions, and probably a desire to teach what he or she knew.
Also, as a candidate, I'd prefer if the employer knew from the get go of any of my beliefs that they would object to, rather than discovering them later and having to go through the trouble of firing me. Granted I don't think anything google will reveal about me is a show stopper at many places.
That all being said, I find most employers don't bother to check up on me online. Hell, I put an open source project on the resume, and the person grilling me on the technical interview just said, "Hey I downloaded that PlaneDisaster.NET thing, it actually installed and ran." People just don't care about that stuff. It really bothers me in a way.
--- Justin Dearing http://www.justaprogrammer.net/ We're just programmers.
I wish I could do this, but ...
a) I'm under non-disclosure agreements for my last 3 positions and the work is not internet facing, but it did have 20K daily concurrent users.
b) prior to that I did government work that can't be discussed.
Almost anything I do for FOSS may conflict with prior work and get me in trouble with existing contracts.
What's a 40-something techno-guru of all trades to do if I can't produce any prior work, nor discuss it in detail without breaking a contract or worse?
I'm recently unemployed due to a policy change by the new owners.
I've been using the same nick for years, and sometimes linking back and forth between stuff listed under my real name and stuff listed under my nick. Now when you enter one in Google, you find the other pretty quick. Of course, it helps that both my nick and my name are unusual - I've had the top Google rank for both for almost as long as Google has existed.
810 results! Wow! IRC logs, forum posts, ban lists???, logged e-mails. It makes sense to, how many people named Doug do you think there are in this world? But I've never seen ANYONE else with the same online nickname. The Internet is archived in Google pretty much.
every day of my LIFE, shit ALL I DO is smoke weed
or some 'almost well formed' spam-ish mail that install a key logger on you machine.
Be thankful. I had to trace someone to Romania to see where a ultimately 'sniffer' reported to.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Hmm. It seems that as long as I don't give a prospective employer my full middle name or any email address with my personal domain in, my real name is far too common to effectively Google. Mind you, the kind of positions I apply for don't tend to have managers capable of banging two rocks together, let along thinking about Googling someone, so it's not really an issue for me. That, and I tend to change ISPs, email addresses, nicks and online habits every couple of years, as well as generalising almost everything I post everywhere, so it would need an AI or digging up a lot more personal information about me to be able to effectively map my internet history.
I have separate accounts, one for business/career dealings, and another for personal activities, including purchasing on-line and commenting on political/social issues. I don't want employers to see my blogs responses. My on-line writing would show me as strongly atheist and liberal, and it takes only one right-wing crank to derail hiring me as a consultant. Although corporations aren't filled with middle-Americans, people's general mistrust of atheists - in polls, people trust atheists least, i.e., less than Muslims as political candidates - as well as the state of politics in the US, will hurt me.
I'd much prefer to keep my private identity private.
Mine is too generic to be found by Googling.. (It's not the one I use here) *sigh*
Kids don't like to be different. If you decide to call your kid something "distinctive", they might be a target for teasing by other children. Also, the anonymity of being called Bob Smith has its own benefits. If the kid later wants to build an online identity, there's nothing stopping them from calling themselves FantasticBrilliantPerson whenever they are online.
All we thought about was being known by our clever nick name.
Often wrong but never in doubt.
I am Jack9.
Everyone knows me.
I'm heavily involved in OSS. My online persona is Linus Torvalds. I have source code as proof.
I mean, my other nickname is Ballmer. Who knew?
I've actually gotten interviews based on the help I've given people in a certain usenet group over many years. The problem is, it sets the expectations of the interviewers too high.
If you are experienced at posting and using "think time" to make them correct, you put yourself at a disadvantage in a situation like an interview where you have to "think on your feet."
Kinda like posting an answer to this thread on Sunday night, too late for anyone to really care.
That's why I DONT do dope.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Interesting that "claimid.com" and "socializedsoftware.com" are owned by people who live only a few miles from each other... makes me wonder if there's any connection between the two.
From my real name appearing in this post, you will see that I always use my complete real name for every online activity. I have nothing to hide from my employer or anyone else and I am not ashamed or embarrased by anything I do online.
Doug Jensen
So you can google me all you want. All you're going to see is that I kick ass, can fly, dodge bullets, and have a really hot girlfriend. Oh and I kinda look like Keanu Reeves.
Of course I did all this before the movie that lauded my abilities so now it's hard to get my nick anywhere... but hey, whatever gets me hired.
"I have put a fair amount of effort into this "brand name" to ensure that it's reasonably respected."
Translation: i am an asshat who likes to refer to my online persona as a "brand name".
than having somebody Google me right now. I just had a fun callout thread on SomethingAwful by a fellow I've known for years (Mostly for laughs, partially because he got sick of me) where every stupid thing I've said online in the last seven years was brought up (Mind you, I'm only 21, so a lot of that was from when I was in MIDDLE school.) along with my full name used several times in the thread.
So basically, anyone who wanted to find out about my horrible fakeposting over the course of most of the last decade would have an easy time of it, without any actual background or context to realize "Oh hey, he didn't REALLY punch that goat." or what have you.
My experience has been most people stumble upon my resume while not looking for resumes at all. They'll google for answers to weird esoteric problems with esoteric stuff they are using, and my resume shows up on the first page of results... A coworker of mine decided it was a sign to skip googling when his google attempt just landed my resume anyway and called me about the problem instead.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
In order to have an online name somewhere, you are usually forced to choose a unique identifier. Granted, you may have chosen TonyMontana@hotmail.com and some other tool chose TonyMontana@yahoo.com, but at each institution, there is only one of each. This uniqueness requirement for domains and for usernames within a domain makes it MUCH more likely that a nickname/username will be unique internet-wide and belong to no one but me--i.e., JoeSmith67301 is much more likely to be unique than JoeSmith. The trade-off is that if I have a unique identifier, I can be uniquely identified and therefore held accountable for my flame wars, ch!ld pr0n searches, and ebay scams. In other words, a unique identifier means people can find out what I've done and associate it with me. If my name is anonymous then I can do what I please and no one will ever know it's me. In real life, I can google my very plain name and find at least three other guys, one of whom is a famous skateboarder, another of whom is also a web developer, and yet another who is an aspiring televangelist. I rather like the anonymity. On the other hand, when I was nineteen the cops came to my house and arrested me in my underwear because they thought I was an acid dealer who went to my high school with the same first and last name as mine.