Jay GW

When a small consulting company in Chicago was looking to hire a summer intern this month, the company's president went online to check on a promising candidate who had just graduated from the University of Illinois.

At Facebook, a popular social networking site, the executive found the candidate's Web page with this description of his interests: "smokin' blunts" (cigars hollowed out and stuffed with marijuana), shooting people and obsessive sex, all described in vivid slang.

It did not matter that the student was clearly posturing. He was done. "A lot of it makes me think, what kind of judgment does this person have?" said the company's president, Brad Karsh. "Why are you allowing this to be viewed publicly, effectively, or semipublicly?"

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/...611recruit.php

Sarpedon

Which is why my online persona is exactly the same as my real life persona. I'm a boring, pedantic person who likes bad puns and is fond of mythology.

JohNeo

Interesting story.

I guess a lot would depend on the industry one is going into, but if the employer expects a high degree of integrity from a candidate, I think the candidate's online persona should be true to that person. Or if they want an online persona, they shouldn't attach their real-life name to it.

I guess I'm going to have to go and take down my "Son of Sam" fan club site.

JN

I. C. Unicorns

These people need a webmaster.

2007 Serial Killer Calendar

"You're Hired!"

I. C. Unicorns

I've found postings I wrote in 1992 on the Internet, they were a little geeky and embarrassing. I boggle at the implications this has for today's bloggy youth on their future, when your life history is a simple Google away.

Genji

I would DIE if some of the things I've said online were brought to my employers attention, or family members!!! I really would likely kill myself. The speeding car into the bridge abutment thing.

JohNeo

:rolling:


Creepy site though :worried:

lisarea

I know I had some prospective employer look up online info about me once, pre-web, and it pissed me off pretty good. (I hadn't even applied, but this woman got hold of my resume and started stalking me, essentially. I only found out because she called a former coworker and asked him all kinds of personal stuff about me. Bitch.)

Anyways, I do wonder if many employers have considered the potential ramifications of looking up personal information about prospective employees. Odds are very good that they're going to discover information they're legally prohibited from considering; and it opens them up to the appearance of impropriety. Most US companies prohibit HR from asking certain questions in interviews or requiring it on applications. The fact that so many of them now are actively seeking out that information via other means is more than a little disturbing.

Frankly, I'm hoping for a few high profile discrimination suits to chill this practice.

JustBlazed

Note to the next generation of web savvy kids:

NEVER USE YOUR REAL NAME ONLINE ooorrr at the very least....

DON'T POST YOUR LAST NAME ANYWHERE

Sure, it's fun to have a profile at MySpace or FaceBook with your real name attached to it, but don't say you haven't been warned about who may be looking at it. Don't even get me started on the sexual predators who are out there that could find you based on your name and where you are from....

It's really quite simple, I still can't find myself in Google even after 10+ years on the net. I was taught at a young age to not use my full name online, the only few times I come up is in official school records or a few interviews I have given (on mundane topics)......that's it.

Clete

Wait, so are you saying that JustBlazed isn't your full name?