Well, then you’re in effect saying in 2014 that you’d want to work for hardly anyone/anyplace, because many employers conduct background (including criminal and credit) checks and not simply reference-checking … and those would apparently qualify beyond the pale, no? If someone puts themselves out on the internet and you can get some sense of their character by what they freely share, instead of what is regularly gleaned on the surface by an interview setting (and sometimes reference-checking), I’m not sure how that’s beyond the pale instead of prudent to avail yourself of it. If the person wants to in fact keep certain aspects of life “private”, then (s)he doesn’t put it out there on the public record.
Of course, if there’s any doubt about a concerning issue or whether you have the right person, if it gets that far you ask the person about it.
And here I was thinking the OP was not being stringent enough in weeding out responses from craigslist. My experience has been that it attracts a handful of good candidates and legions of people who carpet bomb the world with resumes.
My sister wanted to hire someone at her insurance agency. The position was for a licensed commercial lines agent, ideally familiar with a particular agency management system.
She got about 60 responses. Only three of them were from people holding any kind of insurance license. One was from a different state, but that’s about as difficult to overcome as moving to a new state and having to take the exam for a new driver’s license. Another was a personal lines agent, but again, not an immediate disqualifier.
All the others were from people who thought working at a grocery store or movie theater were somehow equivalent to having a property and casualty license. They may as well have been applying for a position as a neurosurgeon.
In America, resumes and curriculum vitae are different. A resume is a one page summation of your skills and qualifications relevant for the job posting while a curriculum vitae is a multipage document that lists all of your education and experience and includes publications and so on. Generally, only those applying for academic, scientific or research positions bother with a CV.
If your applicant’s name is “Mike Smith”, how is googling “Mike Smith” going to help? Or are you googling his email address, which should be unique? Because if you google my full name and check out my wikipedia page you’ll get a very misleading impression of my job skills.
I’m with you on pruning the unprofessional emails and grammatical/spelling errors. But googling applicants can put you near/on dangerous ground. If you look at pictures they’ve posted (like on a Facebook profile), that puts you at risk of discriminating on the basis of race or disability or parental status. These are legally protected classes for job-hunters. It’s also unethical, if that’s a concern of yours. So, best to avoid it. Your background/credit check will pick up on any crimes or financial malfeasance. Beyond that, it’s none of your business to know or care about your employees’ web presence. Unless you think any of your patients are likely to give enough of a shit about your medical assistant’s Facebook to go look him/her up themselves?
Maybe, but unless the prospective employer submits a friend request, I don’t see how an applicant could ever know their online profiles are being looked at.
Unless of course the hiring manager, in a fit of honesty, says “we’re not hiring you because we found out you’re black,” which is also pretty unlikely.
There was a woman who showed up at my workplace for an interview just the other day. She was wearing a tank top that showed off all of her many tattoos and some beat-up blue jeans. Oh, and she also brought her baby and babydaddy with her.
This doesn’t make any sense. If the OP is going to hire someone, she’ll have to interview them in person…[cue scary music] which will reveal their race! And age! And appearance! In fact, some people include a headshot with their résumé. Should hiring managers rip out the photos and throw them in the trash as quickly as possible to avoid determining apparent racial background?
There is absolutely nothing legally or morally wrong about googling someone UNLESS you are a bigot or plan on weeding out those of a protected class. Since the OP does not appear to be a racist, I can’t see any issues.
Companies expect candidates to have googled them; several times I’ve scored extra points for having read more than the “home” part of their website. I’ve been told the full name of an interviewer with the tag “… so you can check them in linkedin”. I expect interviewers will have checked me in linkedin, and possibly in google or facebook.
A google of my own world-unique name produced my linkedin, more linkedin, an amazon review, links to Project Gutenberg, “related searches” for several of my cousins and a dozen pics of which only one is me; I don’t even know who the other people are. Facebook doesn’t even come up, I guess because of the mangling of my name I had to do there; neither do my non-PG publications because they don’t include my full firstname. A google of the latest mangling produced a bunch of people with names similar to mine but who I don’t know from Adam. Any employer who thinks it’s bad that I helped proofread some public domain books doesn’t have the profile I’m interested in
I’ve always been bothered by the “only use your name for a professional sounding e-mail address” advice. Listen, if your name is Penelope Glockenspiel then sure, your name is probably available from the e-mail company. If your name is Jane Smith you’re screwed. My first name was in the top five for the year I was born (and is short enough it doesn’t have nick names,) my last name is in the top five for the US. There is no way I can use any part of my name without ended up with an e-mail address that is too cutesy and hard to remember.
I’ve been job hunting recently and it is really tough for a middle aged woman in a small town to find a job. My degree is 15 years old and even the entry level filing/phone jobs want four years of experience and an applicant desperate enough to agree to $9/hr and crappy or no health insurance.
If I Google myself, the first few pages come up with some singer who has my name in reverse (my last name is his first name and my first name is his last name). Trust me, you don’t want to hear me sing.
Back when I was looking for work, I put a link to my personal website in my cover letter and resume so that prospective employers could download my C.V and my GIS portfolio, and see pictures of me looking eager and hard-working. I was able to see who visited and what links they clicked on.
A mere visit isn’t enough proof that you’ve been discriminated against. But I guess if you’re feeling desperate enough, you could at least make a halfway serious argument that they had enough information to discrimate against you, if they were so inclined.
I would hope a hiring manager is bright enough to realize that more than one person can share a name. “I’d like to introduce our new hire. He’s too shy to mention it, but his life was saved by a Native American princess, say hello to the new head of marketing, John Smith!”
Can’t you just use a combination of initials and numbers to get a unique address? JaneHDoe90210@freeemail? You can just have the mail forwarded to your more personal account name.
I dunno-- it’s pretty good she weeded out the anti-vaxxer. I can’t figure out why someone like that wanted to work for her anyway, unless “infiltrate” is a better word.
There are literally hundreds of people in the United States with my name. Many hundreds. No. No I can’t. Not and have anything that’s remotely easy to use.
I have to agree with this. Googling someone is very common and has been for a decade at this point. I did it when we were hiring interns, interns, and I would fully expect someone to not only google me but also check facebook and linkedin for me if I was going for a full-time job. It’s ludicrous to think employers don’t do this.
I’m a hiring manager and this sounds similar to my process - I definitely google before I call someone for an interview. We also do a credit check and there is a drug test when the offer is finally extended…
