Job hunting? Your past can haunt you on the Internet
“Man, not again! Why aren’t they promoting me? I’m a good team member, but I can’t seem to convince my bosses that I have what it takes to move up in the company.”
Katelyn was again disappointed. After being passed over for three promotions, her circumstances were beginning to puzzle her.
Aaron pondered a similar job issue he was finding himself in.
“I always get the job interview, and always feel good afterwards. They seem impressed and honestly, I think they like me! But then something happens. The next call from a potential employer is different, almost cold. I always send a follow up thank you note, so it can’t be that they see me as impolite. I just don’t get it. This time around, they called but with an offer of an entry-level position. I’m a manager! What the heck is wrong with me?”
Anyone who interviews, hires and/or fires knows there can always be the potential of a Jekyll and Hyde syndrome when making a hire — where the potential employee comes off as wonderful in the interview, references check out fine, etc. But after about a month on the job, they think they’ve hired the equivalent of an Olympic medal-winning back stabber, complainer or troublemaker.
Why did you not see these tendencies from the get go in the interview? Well, sometimes you just can’t, but these days, we do have a great arrow in our quiver to help us look behind that smile and firm handshake in the interview. Thanks to, that’s right, search engines!
While this tool can be a helpful research tool to the employer, it can sometimes be an unknown enemy for the applicant.
So, applicant, have you searched or surfed yourself lately? Read what others are saying about you in blogs, if anything? Is there something posted about you or from you at MySpace from three years ago that still haunts you? Are you being confused with someone else online who has the same name? Did some practical-joking friend post something about you that is actually keeping you under-employed?
Human resource professionals and employers are using the Internet more and more to help them see who they are hiring. Whether you like it or not, extremist views, intolerance and inappropriate items being posted about or by you now become part of what you “present yourself as” when you are interviewed, and you have little control over it unless you know what is there.
So, search and surf yourself and see what comes up. Be prepared! My daughter shares the name of a porn star! She warns her potential employers upfront about that fact, and a little research makes it clear they are not the same person.
Will what they find place you, the applicant, in a bad light? Will they still have the impression you are responsible, tolerant and make good decisions?
The glaring message here is, think before you make the Internet part of your history or profile: If there is anything of concern about you online, bring it up in your interview and explain it. Employers do not like surprises.
Attempt to have objectionable materials removed, but understand the Internet has a half-life, once something gets forwarded, you may have no control over it.
If you post comments to blogs or write letters to the editor that show you are an extremist in any area, give some thought to how comfortable an employer would be hiring someone with your passion about whatever the topic may be.
Something that feels fun at 17 might not look so smart when you are 24 and vying for a promotion.
While you can’t control what others say about you, you can control your behavior and limit what they have to say about what you do.
Monitor your Internet profile several times a year. Things spring up, move closer to the top of the search, and at times, drop off. Getting items removed by the person doing the posting is sometimes difficult, even finding who that specifically is can be a challenge.
Once in a while the Better Business Bureau receives requests to have alerts or warnings removed by the very companies at the center of the release. Google, for instance, likes our alerts because they name names and are posted to our site so they can be found. We do not remove alerts or warnings (but will rectify or correct if in the wrong), and that can haunt companies with a past they would like to hide.
Remember, it is not just employers who use search engines to do research. Universities, spouses, those you are dating and predators looking for a likely victim use them, as well.
The Internet creates a strange phenomenon, a vast illusion of privacy which includes the whole world.