Googling a company isn’t about finding personal details of the employees. It’s about seeing what it’s professional presence is: was there a recent press-release about a new building going up, a manager was interviewed in the local paper about industry trends, see their website to read their mission statement, etc.
Today’s lesson-the interview:
One simple, very simple rule-SHOW the ^&*^&% UP!!!
I am waiting after my work is finished for you. It is now an hour past your interview time. You have not called and you are not here. I am not happy. I gave you the main telephone number and the back line. I told you to feel free to call if you are stuck in traffic. I did not get a call. I did not get an email to say you lost the number. You are not getting this job.
I have 2 employees. They are both trained as medical assistants and must handle front and back office work. I need somebody with at least a modicum of medical knowledge to answer the telephone and know whether the patient can wait to be seen or is having a heart attack right now. My office manager did go through the resumes but I need to assess telephone skills.
Today I got additional resumes from some old favorites.
Dear “Pick me!”-I’m not picking you-stop sending me your resume!
Dear “Twice blessed”- my mercy is strained to the limit. You are most definitely NOT mightiest in the mightiest!
You want an MA to triage your calls for $13/hr? (scuse me if I got that detail wrong.)
I may have this wrong too but isnt an MA just a nurse’s aide? I dont think its in their job description to do medical triage is it?
The reason I wondered if someone couldnt help you with this is the fact that you say youre burnt out with it. I think I could pick up on this if I was interviewing with you for the job and I would RUN AWAY.
You missed my point, which was to highlight an obvious discrepancy in the posited scenario (someone had a clean background check report, and then a Google search turned up a glaringly obvious problem). Given this fact situation, the most plausible explanation is that the “Dave” with the creepy habits isn’t the “Dave” who was subjected to the background check.
If this somehow happened, and turned out to be the same “Dave” after all, I would say that the employer is off the hook, having performed due diligence, and that the background check guy is in hot water for having done a piss-poor job.
Oh, MA as in “medical assistant,” not “master of arts degree.”
I’d also have to wonder how “deep” you have to google, how much link checking you have to do -
And further - just how good you are at Googling.
What happens, if, after googling to page one I don’t find anything - but Dave the Pervert was hit 11?
Or if I google “pervert dave” and get no hits but a search for “dave the upskirt taker” got hits?
Once I recognise the need to google, don’t I open myself to a duty of care (or whatever you want to call it) to do it well? Whereas, if I consider the background check enough, I am not opening myself to that same claim?
Furthermore - let’s say I do google - and think I find something not in the background check - what happens then? Do I take google as being more reliable that a professional background check? To do that - I have to be evaluating the source right? And what makes you think I am good enough to be evaluating a source as opposed to something the background check professional is doing?
Seems to me - you could be opening yourself to disaster by doing this.
…you don’t google names: you google stuff that is unique like their email addresses. It isn’t that hard to find the right person on the internet: as long as they have got stuff online in the first place. If they haven’t: you obviously won’t find a lot.
Given the bullshit many English teachers believe, that doesn’t necessarily say very much about the neurologist’s use of language.
About googling: I wonder how often it’s used to cover up discrimination. For example, if A and B both apply to Company, and A happens to be a member of a protected class and B isn’t, Company could very easily not hire A because of the protected class membership but claim it’s because they saw A doing jaegerbombs on Facebook and decided that nobody who does jaegerbombs shall darken their towels.
Frankly, I can’t wait for the first high-profile court case to come from something like this.
So, I wouldn’t be sued or vilified or given bad reviews on every possible website by an irate homeowner, the background company would be?
Yeah, right.
You guys didn’t see this coming? I take great pains to hide my real identity from my online identity. I get uncomfortable when my employer posts my name and picture online too.
Also, if you didn’t already know, you can get a lot of people’s information already through public people search engines. For a small fee, you can get social security numbers, bank account numbers, etc. Apparently, all you need is a private eye’s license to get access to government databases.
I beg to differ somewhat. Knowing something about the individuals in a small or medium-sized business is a good way to determine if the company’s culture will be a good fit for me, or if I’m wasting my time. For example, if the owner of the company is all over the church bulletin and is the chairman of the local anti-abortion group, chances are he’s not going to be someone I’m going to be happy working for. In a larger organization, yeah, getting personal information doesn’t make a lot of sense. It’s just helpful for smaller companies.
When we saw Shaniqua’s name-EEOC slapped a subpoena on us.
They do THAT now? Wow, that seems over-the-top to me. Maybe for certain sensitive jobs, but … wow.
For me, there has to be SOME separation of work from home/private life (for most of us regular job folks, anyways). Besides, they can already get a metric shit ton of info about me with their paid background search. Maybe they’re wanting to get free info.
Obviously, esp since is the SDMB, YMMV
I can’t find myself either on Google. There is an NHL player with the same name as me.
The search is over. It actually took me 17 days which is longer than the 2 weeks notice I had but here are the grand totals:
78 unique applicants
9 callbacks
7 interviews scheduled (one person never called back and one had just taken another job although she subsequently called again because she didn’t like the new job)
5 interviews (2 no-shows with no calls)
2 people whose references I checked
1 google search (with one person with the same name who lives in New York and is not the applicant)
1 hire (probably the wrong one-I have no faith in my judgement)
1 applicant who previously worked for me and didn’t know it was me
1 upset former employee who apparently thought I was going to counter her new job with a better offer (but she told me she was leaving because of better benefits which I don’t offer)
1 upset current employee (who had to work one day alone until I got somebody hired and is now upset that she has to train somebody new while she doesn’t have backup
4 calls to interviewees to tell them I’m not hiring them (the absolutely worst part of this whole thing)
In addition, I have a few more tips:
-Put your name on your resume. If you send a resume without any contact information and no cover letter, you are not getting called back
-Dress appropriately for the interview. Platform sandals are probably not the most professional footwear. In addition, if you are close to 6 feet tall and wear 4 inch heels, you will come across as intimidating. If you are also overbearing, I will be worrying about my patients feeling overwhelmed.
-Do not show me your children’s artwork. Also do not show me the picture you drew in first grade showing you dressed as a nurse. Neither of these will make me want to hire you.
-Do not include your GPA if it is less than 3.5. Why would I hire somebody with a 3.0 GPA when I have a dozen applicants with 3.75 or better?
-Learn to shake hands. Seriously, does nobody know this anymore? One of the first things I learned about interviewing was how to give a firm handshake. I can’t help but be prejudiced against those with wimpy handshakes. I also have a little list and you are going to the top of the execution roster as soon as I cut my own head off.
I think that’s about all. The sad thing is that this job is fairly entry level and almost anybody can be trained to do it.
How would feel if this is a woman? 
Just to add to this in a somewhat related fashion, as an alumnus, I interview college applicants (as a volunteer). I always recommend that they bring a resume, if they have one. I’ve found that it helps facilitate the conversation when things slow down, or if they appear overly nervous. (“Oh, I see that you are a part of the Debate Club. Tell me about that…”)
I understand that, as an 18 y/o, you aren’t going to have a lengthy list of skills and accomplishments (and as such, you might feel the need to pad the resume), but if you are proficient in Microsoft Windows XP Pro, I think it’s safe to assume that you are also able to use XP Home, Windows MT, Windows 3.1, etc. The same goes for all versions of Word, Excel and related programs.
Calling rejected applicants seems nice of you. I’ve never seen that.
that is very courteous
I have spoken to many MAs in my line of work as pharmacist, and the best ones were the ones who had great judgment. If it is truly a clinical question i.e. drug interaction, of course I’m skeptical when they say “go ahead and fill it that is what dr wrote” and I’m more relieved when they know better and to confirm with prescriber and call back. Or at least say that and call back in a few hours and even give an impression of confirmation haha.