Things to worry about when looking for a job...

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When I (hopefully) graduate college with my Bachelor's at the end of the year, I'll begin looking for a job, although I'm concerned that things such as some of the unfortunate things I've done online in my past could come back and bite me. For instance, at the start of 2007, many of my online accounts (email and IM accounts, excluding financial accounts, fortunately), were hacked, and someone or some people made this phony "full disclosure" post about me using my former Yahoo email account (which I, after a lof of effort, managed to close), where they pretended to be me and included things such as my name, address, phone number, names of my family members, and so forth (although the post did get a lot of information incorrect). I've been trying to get these posts removed from the web sites where they were posted, although there have been instances in which I haven't been able to contact webmasters at all since their sites don't have contact information.

The main reason I'm concerned about this is because I've heard stories about potential employers Googling the names of prospective employees and then not hiring them based on information found on the Internet, and I'm afraid that I may never be able to get a good job in particular fear of that "full disclosure" post I can't get rid of from certain sites. That post doesn't use my full name (which, when searched for, doesn't yield questionable results, although using variations of my name does yield that "full disclosure" post), although I'm concerned nonetheless and will probably try and see if I can't get them down. So I suppose the big question is whether or not I should be concerned at all. I know some of us have had our unfortunate moments here on the web, I'm just afraid about whether or not it could prevent us from getting jobs. I won't go into extreme detail for privacy reasons.

simple; get new accounts. If it actually comes up, you can explain you had someone hack your identity, which is why you changed your accounts.

What they usually look for is criminal record, credit rating, maybe your Internet history, if you need to give it to them. Don't volunteer unless asked.

And when you go for the interview, don't worry, period. Be honest, confident, and friendly. Most managers are looking for hard workers, reliable people (show up on time), etc.

There's any number of sites out there that will tell you how to prepare for interviews. Do some research, and good luck.

Inter web worries topic

Are you writing this in order to warn others about the dangers of revealing too much of the personal self on the web? If so, this is a kind warning. I myself, have never had an employer check me out(one of the advantages of being older). But what I do not understand is how they could find things out. This seems sort of scary. I googled my full name and found nothing, so I assume, rightly, I hope, that no one has thought to impersonate me, though it would be a mystery why anyone would bother.

This is interesting. Please clarify/explain further. Thank you, Duke Gallison

It could in a manner of speaking be a warning, although I'm not sure if employers exactly grill you about your Internet life. I first heard of Googling bosses from one of my community college teachers, which has left me worried for some time. I'm more worried about never being able to get so much as an interview because an employer looks at my resume and application, Googles variations of my name, finds something nasty, and then throws away my application/resume because of that. I'd somewhat be embarassed if it came up in an interview, but I suppose I could explain about the hacking. I do try and keep my full name from appearing where I don't want it, but I suppose I'm overreacting about other things.

Hmm... there's no saying it *couldn't* happen, but the chances are really, really low. It depends a bit on what kind of job you're applying for. Possibly if you were looking for a job in PR or in a company that was obsessed with its image, they might want to Google you. Or if they were hiring you to be like a personal assistant, they might want to get a sense of who you are outside of the interview. But not many hiring managers have the time or the interest to do this kind of search.

Even if they do Google you there's a good chance they won't search the version of your name that would find that information anyway. If your name isn't too unusual, most people will assume that there are other people on the net with the same name. Do you have the same street or email address on your resume as the one that people might find in this full disclosure website? If not, even a hiring manager who's obsessed enough to do the search probably wouldn't even think you're the same person - they don't know the names of your family members so they wouldn't be able to match anything else.

Well, they did get one of the addresses I lived at right, although they said I lived at a house that only my sister and her husband lived in (and they mistook my sister for my mother), so I guess I'm not too concerned...and I don't even use the email they hacked anymore.

Actually maybe I'm just the black sheep here or something but if you are applying for an office job I'm pretty damn sure some prick googles your name.

I mean there would be some exceptions: Well established businesses with large employee counts and procedures for everything, offices where computers are not prevalent, office where person in charge of hiring really doesn't seem like they would.

I once *nailed* this one office interview with this guy that was about 25, definitely should have gotten the job, I even was able to demonstrate 85 WPM on-site with very long words and proper names I had never seen before. But anyway, they said "We will definitely call you next week." 3 weeks went by, I got bored, and decided to check myspace for the guy that interviewed me. He had a decked out page. So he is definitely *aware* of myspace, and most likely decided to check and see if I was aware of myspace as well. Anyway. Yeah. Like I said, no call.

I'm just saying I'm pretty sure it happens.

But what you could do to hopefully reverse the damage, mention your full name in this post so hopefully this search result is #1 at google lol

But the thing is, I'm a CIS major...but I've still done a decent job keeping my full name out of places where I don't want it to appear...

so your concern arises over the assumed high likelihood that they check?

I understand the anxiety on the issue, but I'm sure it still couldn't be the kind of problem that would prevent you from getting a job -- always.

It's a shame you can't just come out during the interview and be like "Yeah, any propaganda you see about me in the internet... just ignore it... it's not necessarily true" and come off as not being a murderer.

Well, I first heard about employers that could do that from one of my computer science teachers, and yes, I am certainly afraid that some of the somewhat negative things I've done online could prevent me from ever getting decent, high-paying jobs. Then again, I would have references of people who would likely say positive things about me.