Genii Weblog

BEWARE... Employers are Googling you*

Tue 18 Oct 2005, 07:31 PM



by Ben Langhinrichs
*title in the Business Section of the Cleveland Plain Dealer on Monday.

Well, all I can say is, I should bloody well hope so.  Would you want to work for an employer so clueless that they did not take advantage of what information they could dig up on a person who was interested in joining their team?  I certainly wouldn't.  

But I do feel badly about one thing.  While I doubt I am ever going to have to worry about a "future employer", if I do, I feel badly for any poor soul who has to wade through the reams of posts, multitudes of random musings and countless inane response to other people's blogs and websites.  How exactly are you going to dig up dirt amongst the prolix prose.

So, as a service to future employers, I hereby present a short list of the stuff you are looking for:

1) Evidence that I am politically liberal: Here I dispute the Republican's integrity, here I make fun of George Bush, here I suggest that the election system could be rigged, and here I say positive glowing things about John Kerry.  That that is just on my business blog.  Go troll through the responses on DailyKOS or read the editorial pages of the Chicago, LA or San Jose newpapers for editor letters.

2) Evidence that I am self aggrandizing and self-promotional: Just search the Gold forum for Midas.  It'll make you cringe

3) Evidence that I am overly obsessed with sexual inuendo:  Take a look at the Mike Midas and Crystal Coex stories.  Need I say more?  Oh yeah, and I read vowe.net, even the posts marked Beautiful.

4) Evidence that I am a slacker: Here I describe my laziness about math, and here I start on a project and just never go forward with it, even a year later.

5) Evidence that I say horrible things about people my daughter is dating friends with: Here I put down his taste in PB&J and here I put down his tipping technique.

6) Evidence that I am cruel and heartless to my children, even aside from #5: Here and here I discuss my daughter's (lack of) food sense. 

I could go on and on, but I hope that any potential employer has gotten the message by now.  This concludes our public service announcement.

Copyright © 2005 Genii Software Ltd.

What has been said:


381.1. Duffbert (10/18/2005 05:49 PM)

*Especially* the posts marked "Beautiful"... :)


381.2. Ben's Daughter (10/18/2005 07:05 PM)

its not really cruel and heartless to your children...just me!

aren't I the lucky one :)


381.3. Stan Rogers (10/18/2005 09:47 PM)

Hypothetical carrots aside, try Googling:

daughter proud site:geniisoft.com

(or search in Notes if that's handier). I'd say lucky fits just about right.


381.4. Ethann Castell (20/10/2005 02:19 PM)

A few years ago when I was doing my MBA, a fellow student came into class and was talking about some guy who had put a business proposal to is company. After meeting with the guy for the first time, the student searched for the guy in Google and within a couple of minutes had discovered that the guy was involved in fraud proceedings. Needless to say, they didn't do any business together. I always remember this event and tend to do the same thing with people I deal with in business.

However I wonder what it will mean in the future if you Google someone and get no search results for them ?


381.5. Ben Langhinrichs (10/24/2005 06:51 AM)

Good question.