Slashdot Mirror
One In Five Employers Scan Applicants' Web Lives
Ned Nederlander writes "CareerBuilder's new survey finds: 'Of those hiring managers who have screened job candidates via social networking profiles, one-third (34 percent) reported they found content that caused them to dismiss the candidate from consideration.' Some red flags: content about applicant using drugs or drinking, inappropriate photos and bad-mouthing former bosses."
Posting to /.
Help fight poverty: Punch a poor person.
Why does every manager not screen all applicants? Takes 5 minutes.
What would you expect if you admitted you're a drunken dope user on Facebook? An award for honesty?
And the logic of posting photos of yourself in compromising situations online: There is none.
If each mistake being made is a new one, then progress is being made.
Study Shows That Information Posted Online Gets Read By Other People!!
Full story, page 6.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
Employees'(or prospective employees') personal lives should be strictly off limits unless the employee voluntarily discloses the information as per professional interview guidelines(such as listing interests on a resume' or answering an interviewer's questions).
Ideally, the prospective employee should be warned in print and verify with a signature, as is done with credit and other background checks, that their name will be googled as part of the application process
Done right, it could be a positive thing -- the employee could be asked,"Is there anything online that you don't want me to see?" and a decision to hire(or not) would be based on the level of the interviewee's honesty, not that photo of them smoking a marihuana cigarette 10 years ago at a frat party.
Many places allow you the opportunity to explain prior convictions, so why shouldn't you be allowed to explain the psycho ex who photoshopped your face onto the goatse guy, then gamed Google so that "your" cavernous butthole is the first entry under your name?
The sky is blue.
...and now you tell me that acting like an ass-hat then posting it online, will affect your real life?
Water is wet.
Grass is green.
I am just SHOCKED!
On the other hand, social networking profiles gave some job seekers an edge over the competition. Twenty-four percent of hiring managers who researched job candidates via social networking sites said they found content that helped to solidify their decision to hire the candidate. Top factors that influenced their hiring decision included:
Some of the numbers on this article have to be wrong ... 22% shared sensitive information from their prior employer ... ?! What could that be?
My work here is dung.
You don't think this is my real name do you?
No, this is the name of my mortal enemy.
Deleted
If you're job searching and you're not smart enough to consider your online profile an extension of your resume, you're not that bright.
Of course they don't want to hire you then.
Would you want to hire someone dumb enough to admit being an idiot on Facebook? For that matter, would you want to hire anyone dumb enough to BE on Facebook in the first place?
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
been there, done that.
Rejected two the other day for outrageous facebook pics.
You can tell instantly if they will fit in with the rest of the team.
A drunk chav and a fat scoutmaster who "was exhausted from having 60 scouts last night" would have been eaten alive in our tech support... :)
M
...though I haven't been privy to what was found, I have been part of several interview processes where we didn't extend an offer, and the reason given was "we found something on their [social networking site/personal site/online postings] that was bad." I have to assume that it was nothing more than typical college-kid party stuff, particularly given how conservative people around most corporate environments can be.
Karma: Excellent, but still won't get you laid.
Like
*candidate's screen name was unprofessional
so what what gives you the right to look in to non work web posts will do the same looking in to my life out side of work when I am on the job?
*communication skills on web forums, chat rooms, person web sites and so on.
is not the same as in office communication skills
site conveyed a professional image vs unprofessional.
But you should not trun people down based on a site that WAS NOT MEANT to be a professional one.
qualifications is a other thing where 2 WAY bloating happens a lot. HR ports jobs with a ton of qualifications that some are not even used / have stuff like 5 years with software that came out 2 years ago.
And people have to pad there profiles just to get in and past HR.
It helps me avoid the bad ones and possibly increase my chances with the ones I want.
One interview I casually mentioned seeing a really good performance by a local violin player. I hadn't actually gone, just read a review. I didn't mention I knew she was his daughter, either(she'd married, so different last name). I found that after googling him and finding it in the "thanks" section of her website. That got us to talking about classical music, music magnet schools, etc. After we "shared a common interest", I was a shoe-in compared to the rest of the candidates.
Fortunately, I don't work there anymore and he's since retired:) I did actually listen to some of his daughter's stuff, later, and she /is/ a good violin player.
The only thing I mind them finding is them finding out that I'm much more interested in software engineering when I'm applying for junior sysadmin jobs. Them knowing that is a sure way for me to never get called for an interview.
You just got troll'd!
Any manager who scans the supposed web life of an applicant is a complete idiot if they can't verify that what they are looking at is authenticated to the applicant.
Let me put it simply. Send me your real name and address. I'll guarantee that I'll trash any job potential you have with one of these hiring managers.
Which might actually be a good thing, since any such manager has probably also populated the place with fellow idiots.
I've been a victim myself of a web smear campaign, and I can tell you that it's no fun. Plus it will stay around forever, depending on how it's done.
I make sure that if somebody Googles my real name, their first hit is my resume. Everything else is garbage.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
Considering my name is shared with some award winning international "star" (so to speak) of the photography world, good freagin luck finding anything about me by googling my name. You'd have better luck googling my alias, though its becoming more and more used, so that doesn't work very well either, thus ending with employers being sorry out of luck.
I'd be afraid for people who get their name bot-crawled and used in those dating or porn sites though, that could give a nasty feeling if that pops as a first hit with your picture next to it. (I've heard of it happening once or twice with even worse consequences)
Its none of my employers business that I am a pagan, and I'm bi. I have to tell you I log IP's that look up my info in several places, if I found out that someone had "googled" me and then rejected me for employment I then have evidence of religious discrimination and sexual discrimination...I don't mind making a job out of sueing people...but I would rather just be a professional at work.
-Ours is the wisdom of Solomon, the magic of Merlyn, the fall of Icaris.
That's not me but my twin... Will I get a chance to explain the employer over this misunderstanding or can I sue "Mr.Jumping-over-the-table-and-landing-on-the-floor-drunk.."
How's the googling going? I hope you like reading my slashdot posts. And if you have karma, mod my posts up, too. In addition to hiring me with a nice fat salary.
I'm sorry Mr. Dragon, the numerous grammatical and spelling errors in your previous post have dissuaded us from extending an offer of employment at this time. We felt there was no need to look into your social networking persona after reading that.
ON DELETE CASCADE
So...
Step 1: Keep a professional "personal" site up where you praise your prior employers and you extol the virtues of work and your pride in your accomplishments at your job.
Step 2: (Optional) Keep a separate social site for your friends (which doesn't explicitly list you by name), also set to private.
Step 3: Get the names of the other applicants and set them up facebook accounts where they list their exploits stealing office supplies, being lazy/napping on the job, and taking pot breaks/drinking at work. Extra Credit for including the phrase "Man, I was so WASTED at work the other day!" anywhere in their profile.
Step 4: ???*
Step 5: Hired!
* Depending on state, Step 4 may be "Get sued for libel" (Do not go to step 5, do not collect a monthly paycheck).
Georgia Tech, the leader in Chia(tm) technology.
People on the internet have no lives!
Oh. Hello, Slashdot.
Oh you want to check out my profile? Sure thing, just search for smokesalottaweed. Let me know about that job. Thanks!
and the first hit is an 18 year old sk8tr guy who sells his used underpants. Wonderful
As long as they aren't using searches to discriminate on the basis of your political views your public activity is mostly fair game.
Monica Goodling's lexis/nexis candidate screening search for Department of Justice career candidates [probably going to be munged by slashdot filter]:
22% of hiring managers google potential employees. That is 4 out of 5 not doing it.
Out of those 22%, one-third said they have found content that caused them to dismiss someone. That is 7%.
So 7% of hiring managers have, _at some point in their working history_, found something that caused them to dismiss someone. I interpret "hiring managers" as HR people responsible for hiring - which means they should have hired quite a few people, yet only 7% have dismissed someone for online content, ever.
In sum total, this "problem" would seem very small.
Know enough about a person you're going against for a job and you could probably get them blown out of the interview waters with a few entries onto a fake mySpace or FaceBook account.
Just a worry on my part. Good thing I'm a hermit!
"Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted." -Groucho Marx
I just saw a show on TV about this. Employment agencies are regularly checking sites like MySpace and Facebook. You find out a lot more information about a person on social media sites than you can from a resume or former employer. Former employers are too worried about giving out information anyway.
Kids are trying to impress their friends by showing off their alcohol and drugs, and now it's coming back to haunt them.
Obviously, a person has a right to keep their personal life private, but social media sites are not private.
Work smarter, not harder, with gps tracking
I wouldn't want to employ someone who wasn't on at least one social networking site.
Doesn't it strike you as the least bit silly that you should be hiring based upon what a person can do (or has done), rather than their social connections? You sound like a typical airheaded PHB.
Trust me, I would rather work for your competition.
and it is called being dooced when you get fired for blogging on the Internet or using a social networking profile. I suppose you can call it getting dooced if you are not hired for the job because of your Internet profiles or activities.
Which is why I use the nickname Orion Blastar, instead of my real name for blogging, social networking, Internet activity, etc.
I am an old BBSer, and we always used handles or nick names instead of our real names.
A tip for those looking for a job:
Scrub your online profiles of all party pictures and comments about former employers. Or better yet just disable your real name profiles and use your nick name for a new profile. One that bares nothing to your real name or personal info.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
I never thought of that -- you can just lie during the interview process to get the job! Why just lie about listening to a violinist though -- I'm sure you would have been a shoe-in for the job if you lie about your job experience, degree earned, etc. What a great tip -- Thanks!
DOH! I never worked for anybody smart enough to read a blog. My last boss thought the Internet was what you wore on your head when you were near food. There! That should keep me unemployed for the rest of the year!
Good, they'd be doing me a favour - I clearly wouldn't be a good personality fit. Yes, I drink - I'm 34 years old, and I can do what I damn well please in my spare time, thank you very much. As long as it doesn't impair my ability to work or bring the company into disrepute, it's none of their business what I do.
It's official. Most of you are morons.
When we've looked at hiring people in the past (student or otherwise) I always search the interwebs for dirt. I think it has saved us a ton of trouble. The worst one was when we had an applicant whose resume was one of our top picks and we were thinking about interviewing him. Then I saw his Myspace page.
He drank underage, admitted to doing drugs, liked to steal, and wanted to go to Iraq so he could "pop a cap in someones ass and not get in trouble for murder". (BTW he was a white guy so us not interviewing him was not racially motivated). He's is either technically stupid for posting this wherever anyone can see or not the kind of person we want running around with keys to the kingdom.
As a side note (and as others have previously mentioned) the people we've hired with almost no web presence have turned out to be the most technically competent.
Don't anthropomorphize computers. They *hate* that.
almost all work fields apart from marketing and human resources have more on content side of them than presentation.
grammatical correctness doesnt mean ZIT when coding, or doing some database work or doing technical maintenance or preparing performance reports.
for example, if some employer is as stupid as to not hire a coder due to his/her grammatical errors in language, they do not deserve to have a coder on their team anyway.
one would think that someone who plays frungy should be much more open minded than a usual grammar nazi.
Read radical news here
Are you the one that crashed the market?
My wife is a second year teacher, and she was warned that most school systems check for things like My Space and Facebook profiles when they are considering an applicant. She was told that the safest thing was not to have an account on social networking sites.
The school systems' justification seems to be that:
A) They have to maintain a professional image, and many people's social networking profiles are not professional at all.
B) Many students would be very impressionable when exposed to their instructors' personal lives on the same sites they use to keep up with their friends.
If you think you are fooling anyone by setting your profile to private, you are wrong.
Many HR departments have super accounts on social networking sites that give them access to your profiles, even if they are private. Not to mention the fact that putting sensitive on a public website means that there is probably some webcrawler out there caching the information to come back and bite you in the ass a few years from now.
Common sense and the most basic of security principles apply here - don't divulge information, especially on the internet, about yourself unless it is absolutely necessary.
p.s. Michael Layth isn't my real name
My ZoomInfo.com profile says I'm Head of Security for Newman Enterprises in Wisconsin.
Newman Enterprises is a fictional company on The Young and the Restless. The show has a character named Jeff.
In reality I publish a web site for soap opera fans. ZoomInfo gathered my alleged employment history from recaps of Y&R episodes posted by users.
http://www.zoominfo.com/Search/PersonDetail.aspx?PersonID=1219954157
They can also easily be the sort of person who has nothing in their life besides online social networking. Last time I checked, internet communications were not the de facto standard of a person's ability to handle themselves in real life social situations.
On my spare time, I regularly drink beer and have been known to post photos of cats "flipping the bird". If you don't like this, great. That should at-least filter out the bottom 10% of my head-hunter traffic.
A guy interviewed with the company I was leaving earlier this year. In the interview, he mentioned that he needed govt surveillance on any systems he used that had internet access, but didn't say what the offense was during the interview. The interviewing manager Googled the guys name and "arrest", and found out he's a registered sex offender for soliciting sex from a teenage girl via a sting operation. Oops.
Needless to say, the company wasn't interested in having surveillance on every server this guy would need to work on to do the job (system administrator).
Seriously who uses their real name?
Oh wait I know this....yeah 20-something slacktards, stoners, jocks and sundry assholes.
I not only have a common first and last name, but the addition of my middle name does little to whittle the results. I can only hope that my potential employers won't mistake me for a lawyer, someone in the winery business, a doctor, an actor, a book enthusiast, or, according to one result when I include my full middle name, dead. Even including my university, high school, or some previous employers get no results that are me.
This can backfire, though. If I include "myspace", some bad things could happen. First result is a black jazz musician's page (which is actually half-decent), so that likely won't be confused for me, but there are likely other profiles out there that might have bad things about some other guy with my name. A smart employer would be able to see that the ages, backgrounds, or education lists don't line up, but some not-so-smart ones will just accept a page as being mine.
I'm much more concerned about my online handle linking to me. The one I use on Slashdot is somewhat common, though I thought otherwise when I first came up with it. The one I use for my e-mail, though, which I've also used on other sites, is quite unique. The first page of google hits is all me but the last (yes, I'm sure someone reading this will check it out). But even then nothing bad can be traced, and I don't plan on including it in resumes or employer discussions.
Most others, especially in the younger generation, should be concerned about their online handle as much as their name. While only a few websites ask for your full name (and display it, as well), the handle you use for that website (usually not your full name) is likely the same handle you use on other websites. Websites that you might not want to be linked.
So, my college brethren, beware! Scrub the internet not only for your own name, but also for that of accounts you've used your common handle(s) on. The same goes for handles in general. Applying for a job with "sexygurl45@hotmail.com" won't win you many points. I've even gone so far as to use one of my "business" domains to set up a personal account used only for employment. It's easy to remember, more unique than a "gmail" account, and I can actually use my name in it (a downside to having a common name).
Oddly enough, there is another person with the same first and last name as me, who's about 10 years older and living in the other side of the US.
I'd be impressed if an employer actually looked me up online, and did a thorough job all by themself. I've anticipated this, and looked myself up to be sure it's not embarrasing. Most of what I've seen, they just don't care, or they request permission to do a criminal background check at some point. I've never noticed any employer snooping online.
Recently, I got a spammy looking email from some company I'd never heard of, that wanted me to write an application for them. The person gave their real name, so I threw it into google, along with their company name, looked up their domain name's registration, and tried reverse phone lookups.
I compared addresses and phone numbers. The webmaster is in Florida, but everybody else is within 30 miles of each other in Minnesota. The company and message look legitimate, whereas if every address was a different state or country, or there was a ring of companies with similar contact information, I'd be worried.
Of course, the person that refers them to me, probably gave them my name, email, phone and stopped just short of telling them my social security number and mother's maiden name. So, why should I be more concerned with online snooping when real people are so much less concerned with privacy?
A couple months ago, I had a prospective employer demand the URL of my MySpace or Facebook profile. He was absolutely perplexed that I had neither, nor a blog showing my innermost secrets to any Internet passerbys. I just could not convince the guy that I don't have a profile, and he kept assuming I had some secret one somewhere.
I should just create a profile on my private website, and have MySpace/Facebook just point to that.
stickam.com you room, your music, your life... 24-7 non-stop
My problem is in 1988 I gave my name, phone number etc. to some local Bulletin Board System sysops and my name found its way on a list of local people, so those "in the know" locally (and later nationally) all had my information. In 1994 this information was put on a list with some other people nationally since a small group on IRC didn't like any of us. In 1998, this list was sent by some other guy on IRC (I had stopped using IRC two years before because I was too busy) to another guy who put it in a text magazine. And it is still up there on the net, on two different sites (at least). Also, more or less the same information is available from currently one source if my name is put backwards.
All of this because when I was 15 I was too dumb to keep my information private in order to log onto local BBS's. And because when I was 20, a small group of people on IRC decided they did not like a lot of other people on IRC. 14 years later and the information I gave away 20 years ago at age 15 is hurting my chance of employment.
I see a solution as well. Despite learning my lesson 20 years ago, this information (name, phone # etc.) I gave out 20 years ago is still floating around. So I have tried to keep my name and information from appearing on the web. Thus, this stuff pops up pretty easily when looking for me. The only solution I see is flooding the web with my name - answering IT questions and crap, being uncontroversial.
Stuff about applicants' off-hours activities should not be a factor in employment decisions. Unless there's concern for libel of previous employers or detailed nonpublic technical or financial information from previous jobs (thus raising legitimate concerns about disclosure of proprietary information) appears on a Facebook or Myspace page, it shouldn't be considered as part of a hiring decision. It doesn't matter for employment whether someone's a partier on the weekends, or which political party he belongs to; if it's not work-related a manager should not be judging his or her employees on this information.
There needs to be considerably more employee and applicant protections put in place in the U.S. on discrimination based on factors unrelated to job performance. Facebook and Myspace are the least of my worries in this regard; the potential of abuse medical records (presently protected to some extent), credit reports, and criminal records is much greater.
Medical records should be considered off-limits in regards to hiring, firing, and assignment decisions, period. It's already against the law to discriminate against someone who's blind or requires a wheelchair; it should be against the law to not hire someone for non-obvious medical conditions, such as someone with a history of cancer, or to fire someone because they've had a heart attack or are being treated for a mental disorder.
Unless a position routinely involves dealing with large amount (thousands or more) of cash or goods easily convertible to cash (e.g. jewelry or casino chips), an employer has no reason to look at one's credit report. Even in these cases where there is a potential of theft to pay debts and it's reasonable to pull a credit check, there need to be strict ground rules in place on what can be considered from that report. Nothing over two years old, and that's being generous, is relevant to one's current financial situation. The fact that employers can and some do refuse to hire someone because of a personal bankruptcy, a home foreclosure, or other financial difficulties up to 10 years old or more is a disgrace. Though not present on a credit report, there are ways of discovering bankruptcies even older than 10 years, and it's common to see questions like "Have you EVER declared bankruptcy?" on employment application.
And the check of criminal records is an abuse that the government can very easily rein in for most crimes that don't garner press coverage. Why should someone who completed a jail sentence 5 or 10 years ago for drug possession and has remained clean ever since or while drunk got out of control and ended up with an assault and battery have to be continually haunted by such a mistake? Once someone's served a setence for a crime, that person should be entitled to another chance to become a productive member of society without artificial barriers to success. While it's reasonable for a DA's office or the courts to check someone's priors for the purpose of determining appropriate punishment for an offense, there's no reason it's relevant for an employer that an applicant broke the law in his past. Marginalizing felons and other criminals can lead to further crimes; if someone's mistake dooms them to a McJob for a long time, they may very well be tempted to enter more lucrative and illegal operations. If someone's currently on probation or parole for an offense, that's reasonable to consider. However once the sentence is done, the record on for charge should be sealed to all except for those in the courts with a need to know.
To those who say don't post to Myspace, Facebook, or any other site, that's a reasonable start. But what happens if you decide to go to a friend's wild party and your name and a questionable photo (even if it's just a beer can in your hand and some empties around) pops up on that friend's site when a company does a web search on you? Or you decide to campaign for someone opposing the candidate whom your employer endorsed (and possibly contributed to) and show up as a point of contact for that campaign? There's only so much you can do to limit your web presence, and the only way to keep abuse from happening is to say that one's personal life is off-limits. All of it.
A few weeks ago I went to a job interview where the interviewer mentioned seeing my Digg profile (because I used my real name)
Bonus: My profile picture was a pot leaf
Double Bonus: I got hired and I'm typing this post from work
I don't see how this is helpful... Private profiles still show up on Google, proving you have one, so any hiring manager with half a brain would just require you to make them a friend as a condition of employment (or part of their background check)...
Best advice--don't create a profile in the first place. Given how difficult it is to get rid of profiles (didn't someone sue Myspace because they weren't willing to shut down that person's profile?), it's best not to open that pandora's box in the first place... Frankly I would love to have a profile, chat with people I haven't seen in years, and use the "really cool" aspects of social networking. But I don't want it to bite me in the ass--and this article proves that it happens...
Now, what would be really interesting is if Myspace, Facebook, etc. put a requirement in their TOS stating that profiles couldn't be used for employment purposes. If they actively sued anyone who broke that rule, then that site would get an influx of new customers...
Windows 3.1x calc: 3.11 - 3.10 = 0.00
Scrub your online profiles of all party pictures and comments about former employers.
I assume you mean "derogatory comments", as opposed to professional comments (you know, talking about cool software development tools they used that you wish they'd open source so you could keep using them in your new job) and other material that isn't likely to get you into trouble.
Why would you put derogatory comments about former employers on your blog/profile/...?
Doesn't that seem like a career limiting move?
I'm amazed at the detail some people go into on sites like the Daily WTF, even.
You can't fire someone for medical reasons, it's part of the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990). Someone who has/had cancer or a heart attack is just as much protected as someone who is blind or in a wheelchair. There's case law to back this up where people have sued their (former) employers under ADA for mental & physical illnesses...
From the ADA Q&A site...
Simple & powerful enough...
Windows 3.1x calc: 3.11 - 3.10 = 0.00
Since now ISP's log your surfing habits for two years. As part of a routine backround check they can just buy a copy of your internet records from your ISP.
And the logic of posting photos of yourself in compromising situations online: There is none.
You are quite right. If the compromising photos are interesting enough, other people will post them for you...
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
And aside from papers and software written, what do you mean by a "web life", facebook? are we talking about adults here or high school students? Would behaving like an adult count against you?
I killed da wabbit -Elmer Fudd
i wouldnt want someone with your opinion in my team, or anywhere in my life. you stick to formality too much that you can easily stifle innovation.
your whole post reeks of formalities, shape over substance, presentation over content.
you would be more comfortable living in a 18th century or 19th century aristocratic society than living in the freedom of 21st century.
Read radical news here
I screen all applicants against google searches and myspace. I won't dismiss them from results alone, but I do print out questionable content and discuss it during interviews.
I love finding people who bad-mouth previous bosses. My favorite question is, "Will you say the same thing about me if I don't hire you?"
Obligatory XKCD.
In that case, my landlord's really gonna be in trouble...
If the masses can keep you down, you're not the Ubermensch.
Anonymous Employee.
Hiring people is a total crapshoot. Obviously you need to hire people with the competence you need. That usually is not the problem. The problem is discerning a prospective employee's attitude. Lots of people interview well and manage to hide their poor attitude. I don't want to be saddled with someone who creates workplace havoc once their probationary period ends when I cannot fire them without a very narrow cause. Since the government has taken away my freedom to do that with a myriad of labor laws designed to ensure my company represents a socialist welfare state, laws far beyond the valid 'non-discrimination' issues which I do find largely valid, I have to play defense when hiring. It costs a lot of money to hire someone and a lot of money to get rid of someone. If I don't do this right I am at a competitive disadvantage. It's a game of risk.
What is important to me varies depending on the task at hand. I might be very willing to overlook certain behaviors in a sysadmin job that would be troubling in a support engineer position that travels the country meeting prospective clients. If you are a boozer or a pot head, or profess attitudes that would reflect badly on my company as its representative, I simply do not want to hire you. You may think all this is your off-work time right to do what you want, but I don't think of it in that way. I'm not hiring you for eight hours a day only. When you're in the bar after-hours at a convention shooting the breeze, you still represent my company. If you act out, I lose business. I want to know your character, and I am going to get in your face(book) to find that out. I'm also going to find out your credit score and your arrest record and your civil record as well. I'm going to use my best efforts to find out what your attitude truly is, and if facebook or MySpace provides that information, tough. But thank you. If you've been bad-mouthing your former employer, I probably will not want to hire you. You may be right, but by being less than circumspect you tell me a lot about your maturity level. If you are smart enough to hide yourself on the Internet entirely, good for you. My job is harder, but I'll find a way. Besides, not putting crap on the Net is a point in your favor.
My suggestion for any job seekers is to pull together your own prfessional-looking web site with a resume on it. If you've got a scribd account or a librarything account, point to it. If you've got a blog, point to it. Turn this thing into an advantage. Then put the site on your paper copy or letter of application. My guess is a prospective employer would be quite pleased to see you made his job easier.
How about a moderation of -1 pedantic.
Not to mention his need to pad his resume to "just to get in and past HR".
That line there would be a big ol' red flag if I found it associated with any potential candidate I was researching. And yes, I do occasionally participate in hiring decisions, and I always do a google search before contacting our candidates.
If the masses can keep you down, you're not the Ubermensch.
It's OK, I'm sure he wouldn't want to work for someone who can't end a sentence properly.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
...cause I'm totally fucked.
I posted a whole bunch of shit on various internet sites over the years. Everything from illicit drug usage, to my odd political leanings - and totally doing it under my real name (or nickname that can easily be traced to my real name). I honestly felt I hit the point of no return and just started to embrace the fact I'm not anonymous, and I'm all over the fucking place.
I have a love/hate relationship with Google - I love being able to find any piece of information I want quickly, but I hate the hopeless feeling of removing search results that I had even written myself.
In the end - I don't fucking care.
It worried me before, and still does a bit today. But in the end, if it means that I can have the freedom to express my thoughts online, I'll settle on mopping floors for the rest of my life ... even if I have some obscure degree in optics.
Apparently the business world doesn't believe in freedom of expression. You're supposed to shut the fuck up, do your work, go home, spend time with your family, fuck your wife/girlfriend (or not...?), watch TV and go back to work the next day. But most of the people who are managers are assholes pieces of shit, so I have no remorse over this. I find it odd that the employer that had the biggest balls to say to my face that they don't want me back was a woman. All the men just called the temp agency to ditch me. I think that taught me the most about the business world. Male managers are pussies, female managers have balls.
Otherwise....
You are fucked if you admit to doing drugs. You are fucked if you admit to liking sex. You are fucked if you admit to hating the President. You are fucked if you admit to hating the police. You are fucked if you show any sense of rebellion to anything ... the employers will search your name, they will read your postings, and by default you lose. Even if they agree with everything you write.
I like using Alan Turing as an example. He spent probably countless nights doing research to help defeat the Nazi's - but it doesn't matter cause he's gay. The law at the time said being gay is illegal, so some pieces of shit decided to conspire against him, and started a process that basically led him to his suicide...
If you rebel to any facet of society that some bare majority - let's say even 51% objects to - they will make your life hell.
It's best to just assume no one Googled your name, and just keep living life ... it just sucks when people start doing things that make you feel like you're going through some awful acid trip, and the totally improbable starts happening for some reason.
Anyone who judges someone from a bunch of random postings online when it comes to a job really needs to rethink their priorities. Come on, I can do a good job mopping floors... why do employers care if I like to smoke weed and get drunk from time to time? Don't they? That must be an awfully large pickle to have up their ass if they do care....
I think employers should start bringing up internet search results during interviews. At least you get a chance to defend yourself. As if I remember everything I wrote online back in 1998 ...
Gotta love things like, having posted comments that support actions like killing your own military officers, while thinking about applying as a military officer 8 years later. heh let's talk about reasons for not applying for a job....
heh in a week's time this will get even more awesome as I put a research proposal forward.
I actually have people online accusing me of defrauding them.
Let me explain; I am a Quality Assurance Supervisor for a medium-large company in the tourism industry. We pride ourselves on having a good product and we make over 100,000 travel reservations per year for our customers.
Of course, every once in a while there's a complaint, and I am in charge of fighting those fires. Usually, we resolve the issue amicably and there's no hard feelings.
Thing is, once in a while the customer is not right (people actually using a service and then trying to put a stop payment on their credit card, for example) and a small group have organized and started a "gripe site", posting their complaints and claiming fraud and stuff like that.
Now, if you google "my-full-name + scam" my name comes up. I don't even write the policies here! I'm just the face! Damn, its not fair...
No sig for the moment.
So what do I do now? None of my online profiles really contain anything 'bad' in them. No bad photos, no defaming former employees, no bad language...
However, many of my online profiles are quite honest about my sexuality. I am gay. Do I need to consider going back into the closet because a future potential employer might be a homophobe?
Still #1 -- Lonely Gay Geek
To deter employers from viewing social networking pages, employees might post terms of service under which employers agree to scram. This idea should not be taken as legal advice, just something to think about. --Ben http://hack-igations.blogspot.com/2007/11/privacy-advocates-such-as-nyu-professor.html
Benjamin Wright, Dallas, Texas, benjaminwright.us
...it's on my resume:
"Greg Barton" java -indonesia -kayak -mozart -football
There are other Greg Bartons out there who are not me and are 1) an Indonesian Studies professor, 2) a gold medal winning kayaker, 3) a composer, and 4) a football coach. Filter all of those useless yahoos out and you get the glory that is the real Greg Barton. :P
I also put my slashdot posting history on my resume.
And now the circle is complete. :)
Fortunately, it works the other way around too. I got a job offer from AT&T through a manager finding my Facebook profile. Turned it down in the end, but it was still there.
It seems as though there are a number of websites now that cater to the fear that employees have of being searched for on the web.
For instance, while it is not exactly clear HOW this company plans to help, it claims to be able to produce a detailed report of your "Web Presence" - http://www.webpresencereport.com/Services.html
Besides, in my virtual life, I'm nothing like the real me. So how do they know its me? BTW - I'm known as Neo.
They posted it online. It was a silly humorous thing. A few years later I was trying to get my employer to hire him. They found the poem and started voicing their concerns about hiring someone with serial killer tendencies. After a lot of persuasion I convinced them to hire him. But I learnt from that experience.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
not certain how accurate the survey is, but i know for a fact my employer doesnt seem to care. as an example, I work for a fortune 500 and was told my fluorescent red mohawk was "unique" by my boss. in fact, i have a hard time believing most employers beyond 1/5th of them actually care enough about your personal life to peruse it on the internet. so long as a criminal check and a drug screen both come back OK, nobody has said anything to me about the russian industrial music or weird food for lunch.
Good people go to bed earlier.
...that four out of five companies lied on the survey.
Just when you think you have the job... it's the ghost of usenet postings past: http://www.ibiblio.org/Dave/Dr-Fun/df9601/df960124.jpg
..a company I had applied for skipped my application over such superficialities, I say screw them. As if I want to work at such an unprofessional redneck shithouse.
I do a variation of 'step 1' and 'step 2'. My school provides personal web hosting space, so I've used it to put my portfolio of computer artwork and photography up, and I make sure my 'computer art' albums are pretty prominent on my Facebook page (which is set to very tight privacy standards anyway). All my whining and venting and stories of questionable exploits go on my personal blog, which is not under my real name, nor linked to anything using my real name. In any case, google my real name, and you'll get mostly pages about a marine biologist, and if you add my hometown, a couple times I appeared in the local newspaper for such achievements as making 'swimmer of the month' on the YMCA swim team in middle school.
I've done this for 50% of the candidates that got far enough along to earn an offer of employment in the past year. I'm increasing that frequency because the time spent is worth it. Most of the time I find nothing. Sometimes, I find the typical crap. They like dogs. They vacationed in ______ last summer. Got married recently, whatever.
The thing that will kill a candidate's chances is how different they are from the employers expectation of normal.
Like the guy who maintained several websites raving about the lunacy of his ex-wife, ex-employer, detailing lawsuits between him and each of those. Copied pictures of threat letters he had received because ... he was taking some pretty hard stances with unpopular and disturbing positions. It was like peering into the mind of a psychopath. I've employed psychotics in the past. I once got woken up at 3am by an ex-employee who was about to go shoot his neighbors. I don't do psychotic.
If it's facebook, drinking, partying, whatever... I guess it depends on whether or not you are applying for a position with the FBI or a hip software start-up. If your mom would be okay with the details you reveal online, chances are so would most of your employers.
These opinions guaranteed or your money back.
I'm very antisocial.
My work, however, has brought in contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars to my employer, and they worship the ground upon which I walk.
So, you know, fuck you and your blinkered, bigoted attitude, mmmkay?
Remove the tag...
This makes so much more sense now!
twitter got axed from his job for being an insufferable martinet, can't find another one and now Microsoft is to blame!
hahahahaha!!
Score: -1. Mean-spirited asshole
Recruiters are tasked with finding best-fit talent and social networks provide the information recruiters need to increase their chances that a potential candidate will excel, not simply succeeding in specific requirements/duties but also thriving in a company's culture, team dynamic and departmental work style. Unlike previous generations, GenY is completely comfortable broadcasting their lives. Maybe it's youthful vitality mixed with ignorance of the "real world" but, the fact is, they are not likely to change just because "boomers"question the validity of our new communication styles. Yes, I expect the MySpace Generation to start using some commonsense and increased discretion as they move through their twenties but social broadcasting is to ingrained in the fabric of our generation to go away. We are encouraging job seekers to privatize their Myspace/ Facebook profiles and promote their work persona with tools like a digital Live Resumes on professional networks and social recruiting sites like Zumeo.com. GenY is a great group, technologically talented, independent minded and fun. With baby boomers retiring and at three times the size of GenX, they truly are the future face of all organizations.
If people are going to take web-search snapshots of your life, then just build some vanity pages (you helping orphans, feeding the homeless, rescuing kittens).
You want a BS version of my life? I can happily supply one.
I suspect this is all related to the fact most companies don't give out references anymore (too many lawsuits). Won't take long for people to start suing for this as well.
Could make a point that someone with no online presence is either (a) technologically deficient (and not worth the additional expense required to train), or (b) deliberately hiding something.