Is My Space Hurting Your Job Search?

[OC]

From here (http://www.blueskyresumes.com/weblog/archives/2006/03/is_my_space_hur.html):

The New York Daily News reports that the popular social networking site, My Space may have cost a freelance TV producer two jobs. Why? A silly picture and caption posted by a friend.


"A friend of mine posted a picture of me on My Space with my eyes half closed and a caption that suggests I've smoked something illegal," says Kluttz.

While the caption was a joke, Kluttz now wonders whether the past two employers she interviewed with thought it was so funny. Both expressed interest in hiring Kluttz, but at the 11th hour went with someone else. I talk about this all the time, and I've blogged about it on many occasions. Online research is now a fact of job search life and you can't just worry about your online profile when you're ready to start looking for a job. By then it may be too late.

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/401069p-339405c.html

***

So whaddaya think? Is there incriminating stuff online about you?

[Jeffbx]

I try to make sure there's nothing at ALL about me on the internet. Fortunately, I share the name of a somewhat well known sports figure, so any searches on my name pull up results for him.

But yeah, I ALWAYS google the names of potential hires. Never found anything even remotely questionable, but you never know.

[InfiniteNothing]

I've used myspace a couple times to look up an applicant.

[DarkFury]

I try to make sure there's nothing at ALL about me on the internet. Fortunately, I share the name of a somewhat well known sports figure, so any searches on my name pull up results for him.


I tend to agree with this assessment... at least on my real name. :D

[CornMonkey]

I've used myspace a couple times to look up an applicant.
hmm, interesting. perhaps i will try to do the same next time around.

[InfiniteNothing]

Just remember that you shouldn't judge a person's work ethic by his or her private life. I was mostly doing it for fun. Of course red flags are fair game.

[AlpineJay]

Not only myspace, but this is true for theFacebook, too. I recently modified my profile out to exclude any incriminating information on me.

[ShawnLee]

My line of work lends itself to openness and honesty, so even sharing my flaws tends to work in my favor. But then, I don't have anyone claiming that I've smoked out.

Of course... With all the bitter political posts that are here in this forum... I'm screwed!

[BigJon]

Isn't such a thing considered as discrimination? I mean...the employer shouldn't be looking at what the employee does in his free time...he should be looking at his resume, skills, and references.

[mcs328]

I've googled searched myself and the first result is me with all my posts in discussion forum about Oracle so that defintely doesn't hurt. The results after me is an actor's name, a competitive motorcyclist and a doctor. If you search my name and Oracle, you can see I'm cited on someone else's oracle techy Q&A blog.

[Jeffbx]

Isn't such a thing considered as discrimination? I mean...the employer shouldn't be looking at what the employee does in his free time...he should be looking at his resume, skills, and references.

Only if you don't hire them based on a protected class - for example, I can't take into account the fact that he's Muslim or Lutheran or whatever. Or it can't be a factor that he might have some disablility that's not apparent in the interrview, or if he's married or not, or over a certain age, etc. Interestingly, I don't think there is a federal guideline yet about sexual orientation -so depending on your state, you may or may not be able to take that into account. (Not to turn this into a political thread or anything!)

However, it's pretty much fair game other than that - if I'm hiring a Microsoft tech and he happens to own the domain MicrosoftSucks.com, that may indicate to me that there could be someone else better suited to the position. If nothing else, it would give us something to talk about during the interview!

[ialsohaveadream]

But yeah, I ALWAYS google the names of potential hires. Never found anything even remotely questionable, but you never know.
I don't usually google them, but I do check myspace and facebook, since a lot of my hires are younger and more likely to have profiles on them.

[redcolours]

:)

thats why i created this shirt:
http://images.cafepress.com/product/30481834_240x240_F.jpg (http://www.chosenfool.com/cpstore.php?item=/chosenfool.30481834)

he he...

[welfareloser]

my friend doctorcornholio had - on his personal, non-school webpage - some pictures of spazmonkey pointing to the word "slutmonkey" written on our back porch in sidewalk chalk... and a freakin school administrator told him to take it down before interview season started. he decided he wasn't ashamed of the fact that he found it funny, didn't take it down, and matched in emergency med at the mayo clinic, sooooo... i guess he wasn't hurt by it.

when i google my name, it turns out that there are a couple dosen others with exactly my first/last name combo... all 10 years younger than me, and star athletes. so i look pretty durned good on google! :P

[avlena]

Isn't such a thing considered as discrimination? I mean...the employer shouldn't be looking at what the employee does in his free time...he should be looking at his resume, skills, and references.

Well, part of the decision to hire a person is whether or not you think they'd work well in your group. If your entire group has a particular personality, you're not going to hire someone who conflicts with that personality, and thus could disrupt the project. It sucks, but hey, if you don't mesh well with your work environment, your work will suffer and vice versa. Plus, what if you see in their blog that they're complaining about working too hard, or how they hate bossy women, or how they were so hung-over the other day they could barely make it to work. Why wouldn't you hold it against the candidate??

If there's red flags in the candidate's myspace or blog, then more power to the employer for doing his/her research and catching it before they wasted time and money on the candidate only to have to fire him/her, or worse, be stuck with the person.

:P btw... one good thing about getting married and going through the pain of a name change - Mrs. Graf doesn't exist on the internet! muhahahahahah.....