Slashdot Mirror
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?
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!
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
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.
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!
Absolutley not. I interview a *lot* of people and I have never seen a CV (resume) that lists any nicknames, alter-egos, aliases or anything that would point to the candidate having any kind of online presence. It woud probably count against them if they thought this was important.
I certainly would never follow up any links to online data in a CV.
A lot of countries have anti-discrimination laws. You would be on very sticky ground if you rejected a candidate on the grounds of information you had gleaned online (esp. if it was related to a class of discrimination). For instance if someone's online diary said "I plan to start a family in a year or two" You could not ask this type of question in an interview and if you rejected them by knowing that this was their intention you could end up being sued.
BTW, I'm assuming UK law here.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
One time we had an applicant who gave us a few direct links to his stuff on his resume. Unfortunately (for him) some of his stuff had a pretty unique nickname attached to it (I seriously doubt two people would have had the same handle). Googling that handle helped us find other info on him. Including a blog entry from 3 months back talking about how he was just starting to learn a core technology which was *completely* necessary for the position we were hiring for (ColdFusion - don't shoot me, I just worked there). Problem was that his resume listed 6 years of experience with it, which his blog totally disagreed with.
Digging deeper it turned out that some of what he had listed as example applications that he claimed he wrote were just someone else's pre-canned scripts which he made some tweaks to before putting online. We didn't hire him, but it didn't stop him from applying with us several more times. I wanted to interview the guy and ask him why his blog and his resume disagreed, but I guess my boss just figured it was a waste of time toying with someone who lied to us out of the gate. Thing is we didn't need someone with 6 years of experience, we actually would have preferred someone with 3 months of CF experience since we were trying to hire someone to get the many day-to-day small scale maintenance work (static web content updates and the like) off the shoulders of the core application developers.
Slay a dragon... over lunch!
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've got a reasonably unique name, and I decided a while back that using it as my online name is a good way to keep myself honest and avoiding the temptation to do something stupid.
I say "reasonably unique," of course... there is actually another person I know of with my same first and last name; he's the CEO of an RFID company in Kansas. I've always thought of contacting him, but I was actually born in Kansas (moved away when I was 3) and there's that tiny fear of finding out that he's me.
Sam! If you will let me be,
I will try them.
You will see.
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.
What the hell were your parents thinking naming you Rock Hardon Beaver?!
Especially when their last name is Goldstein...
Thing is we didn't need someone with 6 years of experience,
Then's what was the problem? You lied about what experience you needed , he lied about what experience he had.
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.
Sure, that's a good idea, but your online nickname doesn't need to be on a resume. The emphasis should be on the projects you created or contributed to, not some virtual persona. You should explain in person, the online or FOSS projects that relate to the position applied for, and earn their trust. The whole notion of googling a nickname being more validating than telling someone the work you've done and demonstrating your knowledge is ridiculous. It comes down to trust (both ways). Besides, if you _really_ cared about getting recognition from the professional, err.. real world for your online projects, use your real name or at least a semi-professional looking email address!
Here it is in a nutshell, if your potential employer is relying on a google search to make a decision, YOU FUCKED UP YOUR INTERVIEW.
Someone, quick, mod him down, in order to fuck with his "net credibility"!