According to the New York Times’ sources a number of employers that recruit on our college campuses have be taking advantage of search engines like Google and Yahoo to collect preliminary background information on college Seniors they may wish to interview. “But now, college career counselors and other experts say, some recruiters are looking up applicants on social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Xanga and Friendster, where college students often post risqué or teasing photographs and provocative comments about drinking, recreational drug use and sexual exploits in what some mistakenly believe is relative privacy.”
The problem that you probably don’t need me to underscore, involves the way you look to government or corporate America, and even to graduate school admissions offices. They start throwing up red flags when they find lifestyles that might be questionable to them (brag on line about experimenting with drugs, and they will think you are a druggie). Believe it or not employers often have core values, and what you have portrayed in a public access forum even if it was just posturing, could just as well disqualify you from employment consideration.
The most common advice given is to regularly search your own name, if there is something out there in cyberspace that your grandmother couldn’t read or look at it, clean it up!
Riverside County does not have a formal policy on pre-searching candidates online. I don’t know how many (if any) recruiters might use this approach in their recruitments, but it would more likely happen further into the hiring process when a hiring manager did some research before a decision was made. Law enforcement related positions have a pretty rigorous background check. They my use this technique, but I have never inquired. Conditionally hired candidates, although, must go through a physical exam and drug screening before being brought on board.
Taking this Google advice myself, I found that I will never be able to get another job. The first entry that pops up is “Desert Jobs Blog” and anyone who reads my blog picks up on the fact that I have a slightly bent antenna or a loose cable connection somewhere. The one I like even better is when eccentric people are described as being a full bubble off level, but the one I can't quite figure out for sure is, "All his pups aint barkin;" I guess we are getting into redneck humor now.
But let me tell you the really cool thing that happened when I Googled and Yahooed (before, I didn’t know you could do that without hurting yourself... no that was not the "cool" thing).
Several entries came up for my grandfather, who is no longer with us. One was the listing for a US Patent he held for a “Harvesting Implement with crop guide elements,” that was probably designed by my father when he work for grandfather; an index reference to him in the "Olathe [Kansas] Centennial - Arrows to Atoms, 1857-1957" issue; and a magazine biography of him from 1946, when he was the president of the Advertising and Sales Executives Club in Kansas City, Missouri.
Well, I still have no official blog ending slogan, and no one has offered up any suggestions, so just let me say I am leaving the office now, and may the bluebird of happiness steer clear of your auto windshield.