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Be careful what you write online

seopedia.org — Be careful what you write on the Internet. According to a recent survey by CareerBuilder, one in four managers now 'Google' potential employees and 51% of applications were rejected because of what was found.

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  • wrmineo, on 10/12/2007, -18/+4Good advice and a great, informative article. Today's younger, savvy HR staff are very computer and Internet literate ... job seekers beware! :)
    • dustyshadow, on 10/12/2007, -2/+56computer savvy HR people...that's funny
    • strictnein, on 10/12/2007, -2/+41Marked as inaccurate. The actual quote is: "Of those hiring managers who used Internet search engines to research job candidates, 51 percent did not hire the person based on what they found. "

      So, 51% of the 25% of the hiring managers have rejected a SINGLE candidate due to a google search. NOT 51% of candidates have been rejected due to a google search. Very inaccurate.
    • sbrown123, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Bad advice. What I wrote on the internet actually HELPED with my recent job hire. There is also the issue that identifying people on the internet is very difficult and can lead to HR people confusing a potential hire with someone else. Could you imagine the law suites coming from this?
    • zionKing, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15I wanted to comment more but hands hurt from helping my manager build a deck this weekend. And don't get me started on what a gentleman he is!
    • ScottyQuest, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12All I have to say on this issue is summarized in this comic:

      http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/dreams.png
    • zip000, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2My name is actually the same as a fairly famous person, so it is almost impossible to find me in a Google search unless you already have a lot of extra information (and are pretty good at finding things)
    • TomFrost, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14@zip000:

      Is your name really Michael Bolton!?
    • fauxXenophanes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1*****!
      said I.
  • T0PS3O, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11Not just what you write, also who you hang out with and where, like forums etc.

    A couple of spare usernames here and there never hurt ;)
    • texpundit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10That's why I use separate email addresses and handles for each of my projects I want to keep separate...and I blog anonymously.

      It would take more than just a savvy HR person to track down all the projects I have out there...and not even then would they be able to track them all back to me.

      You just have to be smart about your online activities.
  • JimW, on 10/12/2007, -11/+2Well, I use it to my advantage instead. I tell my clients and even have it written on my service sites to Google my name! And my name is unique. And I can assure you that many have signed up with me based on their findings, but I totally agree - be careful what you write online.

    One company was cheating on hundreds of their clients and I bogged about it ranking higher then themselves on their own company name.The CEO threatened to sue me but then I told him that if he does that I go to media. Big story ... that company is sold now btw.
    • osbjmg, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2Interesting, what do you mean go to the media? Isn't your blog media?
  • netferret, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7This is why we have nicknames/usernames my friend :D
    • dbr_onix, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Exactly, most of this seems to rely on your would-be employer magically knowing your screen name. I just quickly searched, there is nothing linking my full name to this nick name, even if there was, I have a fairly common name. Even if there was (or if they telepatically knew this dbr_onix or dbr nick), I've not posted anything I would care if an employer saw..
      - Ben
  • mad5, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17I got rejected for a job in the UK MOD straight out of uni due to some references to drunken antics. It made for a very uncomfortable interview.
    • jer2eydevil88, on 10/12/2007, -4/+15Thats just plain wrong, everyone in college has had a night or two of drinking. Its the loss of privacy in this day and age that is really of concern...
    • mgorbsky, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17Is it really a loss of privacy when you post the pictures of you doing a keg stand yourself on a publicly accessible website? I'd venture to say in most cases, when "questionable" material gets posted, it's either the individual themselves or a friend posting it and neither party is opposed to it.

      You have a great deal of control over what actually makes it on to the Internet about you. A little bit of self control and general awareness can go a long way.
    • petroK, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9On the upside, if you find someone to hire you, at least you know they won't get all up tight about you showing up to work hungover on Monday.
    • subESC, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6How does me drinking (legally, mind you) have anything to do with the work that I can shell out as an employee during weekdays?

      I can understand an employer coming to this decision from seeing illegal activities, but I don't think that a night on the town constitutes as a just cause to reject employment.
  • joerod, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8what if your name is very popular?
    • osbjmg, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12Then it may work in your favor, be logical please :)
    • netferret, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Good point, also if they are that sad to look online for information about you then you probably dont want to work for them anyway. Just think the moment your back was turned they would be looking through your favourites email and various other bits and bobs on your pc.
    • bloodylip, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Then you'd better hope that HR disregards any posts they find on that basis.
      If you Google my full name, you'll find that I'm pretty much a ghost online.
  • btgoss, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11I know this is true. I had been keeping a blog during my chemo treatment, and I know I was refused work on at least two occasions because of having been a cancer patient. Proving it is another story, but there is nothing to be done about it now.

    Of course all of my right wing neo-nazi childrens books could have something to do with it as well.... but the republican party is for children as well.
  • darkstar949, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1This is why it generally is good advice to not use your real name online, or if you do maintain more than one screen name. One screen name for things that are not detrimental to you professional image (i.e. editing on Wikipedia, answering technical questions), and on screen name for things that might be (i.e. your blog, game websites).
    • ABadInAlbany, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4using your name is fine. just don't be an idiot. don't take actions you don't understand, and accept, the consequences of. in other words, be a man, be a gentleman, and don't be an idiot.
  • bluephoenix, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5you should sign up for claimid.com and also get a ziggs profile....they'll be the top results for your name and ziggs even tells you when someone googles your name.....
  • CAvenger, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I did a search on my name through google and the first result... Oh dear, I didn't know the FTC recorded all comments and released them to the pubilc.

    "What the hell is your problem? Amending the Do Not Call List to allow any telemarketing whatsoever, be it pre-recorded or WHATEVER, is absolutely absurd. If you open up even a tiny loophole those scumbags will find EVERY WAY POSSIBLE TO EXPLOIT IT. I would know, since I was a telemarketer for a month. They're scum, and they'll do scummy things as long as you leave even a creak in the door open. Leave the ***** door SLAMMED SHUT."

    Oops.
    • jonnydobad, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5I just used "the Google" to find myself on "the Internets" and found that I am in good shape. "The tubes" didn't return anything bad on me.

      I am surprised that the comments I posted about 5 years ago about why MySQL was better than Access showed up. I guess that it supports the fact that I do have computer experience. Whew... I am not screwed...yet.
    • patience, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15CAvenger: I DON'T think you have learned from your experiance!!!!!!

      You just made another mistake:
      Don't put a quote you have made elsewhere on Digg. I just googled the quote and found out your name. Then I can go through your comment history and basically say, this is what this person said. I can find who you are

      Dont you remember TomFraser:
      http://tomfraser.justgotowned.com/
      http://www.cafepress.com/tomfraserdigg.81248382

      Change your login name ASAP and stop posting under CAvenger. If you keep posting, don't troll.
    • CAvenger, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2"I just googled the quote and found out your name."

      I knew someone would.

      Give yourself a pat on the back, you found my public information that was already, well, PUBLIC.
    • patience, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1"Give yourself a pat on the back, you found my public information that was already, well, PUBLIC."

      Are you DENSE. People who can be traced should NOT troll even midly. Is your elevator reaching the top? Am I getting through. You are asking for trouble. There are some craxy diggers out there.
    • CAvenger, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1"There are some craxy diggers out there."

      I had NO idea!
    • CAvenger, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Buzzkills always get -diggs. :)
    • patience, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1CAvenger: Someone will "learn" you a lesson if you keep trolling.
    • CAvenger, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1For an anonymous user you sure like to troll with malicious threats. Need I remind you that anonymous trolling is in fact against the law?
  • yeahbuddy, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1This is exactly why I don't have a myspace or other online "social" networking account. A potential employer WILL check. Not worth it, IMO.

    I have found many myspace pages of co-workers. I have to say they changed my view of the quiet ones significantly. Eye-opening to say the least. I can't imagine how HR views the profiles/photos/posts!
    • ICSU, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1You work with 15 year olds?
    • yeahbuddy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Nope. I'm a pharmaceutical rep. Ever seen some of the reps out there? They're wild to say the least.
    • chrisjp88, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2If you want to use myspace though just set your profile to private.
  • igdrasa, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1If you show your true colours on the net then you are more likely to be employed in a job that suits you.
    • yeahbuddy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I disagree. Most behavior in people's private lives would be considered unacceptable for employers. Unless you are aspiring to be a bartender or porn star, it's probably not advisable to post in detail what you do on your time off. Everyone parties, has a personal life, but employers don't want to know about it. Posting on these social networking sites makes yourself exposed and vulnerable. Trust me, the HR geek reading your posts/viewing your photos does the same stuff after hours, but they just keep it on the down low.
    • ConceptJunkie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I would hope that potential employers do some internet "background checks" on me... and if they are the type that don't like what they see, I wouldn't want to work for them. I have always taken the attitude that I wouldn't post something I wouldn't want my Mom to read... and it works quite well.

      Besides, my Mom wouldn't have any interest in, or in some cases even understand, most of what I've put online. ;-)

      I have a fairly unique name in that a search for my name "Nickname Surname" on Google comes back with about 10 pages, and scanning the results, they all look like me.

      I would hope people would want to take a look at me online, because the kind of employer I would want to have will see my participations in forums, etc, as a useful (or at least not harmful) thing.



  • ABadInAlbany, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9file this one in the "well freakin' DUH" category. buried.
  • kenthorvath, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2On a related note, 2600 held a hacker's conference last year and one of the talks was going to be about how much information you can find about someone (not just online). I believe the title was "Privacy is dead, get over it". In any case, the speaker was arrested by the FBI (I think) and the talk was never presented. But, it was rescheduled until Nov 16th, in Hoboken NJ, and admission is free to the public, so... If anyone is interested in attending:

    http://www.2600.com/news/102506-files/privacy.html
  • jrocklin, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9I had this happen to me on a job, but it worked out for the better - the engineering team I was going to work with say a blog post of mine complaining about how every other job I had been at never had computers and things set up for the first day and I sat around reading manuals. So they decided to pull a little joke on me and have my office set up with my system on and running when I got there! However they told me I had to read through the stack of manuals (all about the oldest/thickest ones they could find) before they would tell me my password to log in!
  • XTrek, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1This is only good advice for the tech idiot. I never use my name or or an email address that has my name in it on-line.
  • Koosebane, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3The internet is a public place.

    I think most people are confused because they can access it from the privacy of their homes. It just so happens millions of others can do the same.

    /Captain Obvious
  • empeethree, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1who the hell is putting their online user name on their resume anyway? that is worse than filling up your resume with company logo's (ie. microsoft, cisco, ect.)
    • Darkkish, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1OmG GGOGLZ@ IM XoXUB3R1337H4XX0RXoX OmG G00GLEZZZ I WNT 2 COM WURK FER UUUUU!!!@! I HAV STRAT A's N CALLEG N COMPUZORZ!1!1!!!11

      (I think they were implying that google themselves would google their name and find their screenname.)
  • Darkkish, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4-Deleted-
  • Galaeron, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Thats great! Just googled my name and couldnt find any information about me. Found a bunch of other people, but not me. Way to suck employers!
  • r©ain, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Well you know...
    I you're dumb enough to your most vitriolic political views, drunken rants about your recent break up and post pics of the subsequent titty bar outing you and a few bros went to. And all of it authored proudly under your real name...

    maybe... just maybe, you deserve to be flipping burgers for a living.
    m'kay?
  • dmorel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm a christian evangelist author first.. after that a french photographer and/or me...

    I'll take options 2 or 3... Wonder how many pages deep these HR folks go.


    • neuropsychguy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm a mathematics professor, apparently. What's going to be confusing for some people (if they are a bit daft) is when I finish my PhD (not in mathematics) in a few years. Then there will be two people with my name who both have PhDs. The funny thing is that could end up teaching at the same university as the other fellow with my name (it's not likely but possible). That'd confuse the heck out of people.
  • TimDigg, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1*****...I'm almost certain I wasn't hired to Google, because sometimes I would accidently leave my google id(gmail account) logged in while surfing for other companies and other things...

    that Gmail account is also what I use for professional email, I have a CIS, BA, Tech -focused MBA and a Associates in Project Management(CAPM)...and only want 50-60k...I've had many internships as well...I'm almost certain its related to my search while the google id was logged in....I'm POSITIVE OF IT...sometimes I would do search for their competition for jobs as well


    ***** it, I still wanna work at google, gotta keep trying

    what sucks about Google is that 90% of their public email is automated, AI driven...so you never get a real person.....or thats what they want me to think....oh well...gotta keep trying
    Make sure you are COMPLETELY logged out of Gmail before searching on Google
    • sublime, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Im sure they are capable of linking your searches with your gmail account simply by the cookie. It doesn't matter if you are logged in.
  • radial, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4i disagree with this practice. my life is my own. If an employer doesnt want to hire me based on my online stuff, i don't want to work for them anyway.
  • sublime, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If they google my name, they will find a story on an escaped convict since I share a name with one. Looks like my career is doomed.
  • Azur2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4http://www.ibiblio.org/Dave/Dr-Fun/df9601/df960124.jpg
  • sharkb8, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I think this is a terrible practice, especially for the potential employee. First of all, this is only somewhat feasible if someone has a fairly unique name, otherwise think of all the Mark Smiths out there. Second, there would only be lawsuits if the potential employer confronted the potential employee about any questionable content, not likely to happen. What is likely to happen is that the potential employer does their search, sees unfavorable content (whether it is for the correct person or not) and just doesnt hire the potential employee. The potential employee is lilkely never going to know the real reason why they did not get called back for a second or get the job offer...
  • xenixninja, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2A manager that uses Google to screen applicants is lazy and new at his job. Meet the person first, then judge him. As one user writes here: "If they google my name, they will find a story on an escaped convict since I share a name with one. Looks like my career is doomed." (sublime)

    And if you are judged by your views, then maybe the job wouldn't be right for you anyway.
    I'm not sure what you guys do, but when I apply for a job, I kind of look for jobs where I hope I will fit in.
  • SuburbanDave, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Google Results: 1 - 10 of about 85,500,000 for (My Name)

    Good luck with that search Mr./Ms./Mrs. HR person. LOL
  • raccettura, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I can vouch for the accuracy of that article. Having recently completed a job search, yes most (I'd say in the 80%+ range) will Google you. Only one outright admitted it. A few even went so far as to act dumb "I haven't seen your resume until just a few minutes ago when our external hiring agency sent it", meanwhile I have a traffic log suggests you were reading it online when you called me the other day.

    Often right before (minutes before) first contact (either screening, or asking to come in for an interview) is when they Google. At least that's been my experience.

    After a call, I'd grep the logs for IP blocks they own. Considering most, but not all companies have an IP block of their own, 80% is likely a conservative estimate, at least for IT jobs.

    But that's one of the things blogs are for. High Google rankings, and the ability to see who googles you. I was initially surprised to see how often someone Googled my name before the job search. During wasn't so shocking. I expected it since I knew people who did that as a job duty during internships.
  • GlargTheKelfn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2it's real easy to deal with this; never do anything online with your real name. i've been posting to usenet since the 80's and fidonet, and there is still not one item online that ties to my real name.

    pick an online alias, and stick to it, never tie it to your name.
  • madchemst, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The advice was to be "careful". Not to refrain from doing it at all. I've found it to be both advantageous and otherwise.
  • glmory, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Some of this clearly is simply a matter of is your writing insane or not. Clearly if you are posting on pedophile forums with your real name, or writing about how the government covered up blah blah blah, you are not getting the job. Also, those slutty myspace images you posted of yourself in the wet T-shirt contest. Well Actually that might help you get the job.
  • Azur2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2If an employer googles me he will find that I'm a successful hockey player with a degree in law, that I'm active in church, and I do volunteer work with inner city kids. I'm married and have two kids.

    Man, wont that employer be surprised.

  • automagically, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I've actually made it a point to use my real name as a screen name in various places, for the sole purposes of looking good to people who will search for me. Hopefully people searching will stop at that, and not try to find a link to my other screen names, such as this one, and all the comments I've made here that they might not like. For example, use your real name on YouTube, and upload some "nice non-partisan" videos. Same with Flickr, pictures of sunsets, etc. Do you upload Flash on Newgrounds? Have two accounts, one for the gross childish stuff, and one that can be linked to you, with portfolio quality stuff.
  • thefutureisours, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2HR departments suck. This is all BS. They barely even know how to turn on a computer, let alone google someone. No way are they going to pull this crap on me while I'm applying for a job.

    -John Jacobs
  • pwrstick, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1My last name is Smith. Good luck!
    • justice7, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1same here

      and a very common first name.

      happy hunting!
  • woodenturkey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I call BS too.
    Unless you have your full name, a head shot and the last 4 of your SSN, there would be no way of knowing you John Smith from John Smith the Youtube cat molester.
  • spamm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0this is old news
    besides everyone on myspace should know better to use fake names and/or pictures or at least use a alias
  • fareed, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Google found me being the submitter to the lyrics of an embarassing song.
  • malliemcg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Which is why if you search for my name on the intarweb you won't find much about me, and my resume does not reference my screen name(s). Whats the big deal here?
  •  

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