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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To remind people to google yourselves and manage your online image!!

303 replies

MoanaMum · 09/08/2018 14:18

I am currently recruiting for two high profile posts in our company. I've had some great CVs and applications through, but if candidates think we won't google people and check social media they are a bit naive, and unfortunately it can really change the impression a potential employer is left with. So if you are looking for jobs, take a moment to go through what your FB page looks like from an outsider, your twitter, etc and do google your name!! Just come across one which, well, just wow!!

OP posts:
NickCartersLeftTesticle · 09/08/2018 15:00

I completely agree with you, OP.

I work in HR and see this happen so regularly.

Though a few weeks ago, I did some background digging on a woman who'd applied for a job. Her social media was full of videos of her ridiculously well-trained cat doing tricks (including singing along with her husband to "You are my sunshine"). She didn't really tick all the boxes but I very strongly recommended her for the role and she got it Grin

BlackAmericanoNoSugar · 09/08/2018 15:00

I've just Googled myself and the only things that come up that are the real me are a planning application and my father's death notice. However there are other BlackAmericanos with twitter/instagram/linked in accounts and none of them are me. How do recruiters distinguish which is the right one?

Flynnshine · 09/08/2018 15:01

I've just Googled my myself to check and I share my name with a American pro gymnast so there are just hundreds of photos of girls in leotards! Hmm

AjasLipstick · 09/08/2018 15:03

Spider As an employer, I'm not looking for pictures of Emma on a night out but evidence of traits I'd rather not have in an employee.

One potential employee had images of dope plants, guns and similar on her Facebook page. Also some extreme Far Right things.

I just look and think "thanks for the info!"

DGRossetti · 09/08/2018 15:04

Googling myself brings up online posts from 1987 ...

AjasLipstick · 09/08/2018 15:04

BlackAmericano I'd look for things which placed you in a particular location.

Evidence on Linkedin of employment in the town I know you're from for example.

That's simplifying it but it's not hard to work out.

Original poster
MoanaMum · 09/08/2018 15:05

I personally don't dig very far - i.e. google/ FB/ Twitter... I know other people, especially professional recruiters who really dig down far. And of course with a common name you know you are unlikely to find the right person, but still worth adding. I keep my FB account locked down for personal use and my twitter is open but very much my professional face. I'm not saying its right but it is a reality.

OP posts:
TatianaLarina · 09/08/2018 15:05

There was a thread pertaining to this on here some time go, and a significant % of the posters responding felt it was a gross in invasion of privacy. They didn’t seem to have twigged how the internet works.

Bottom line is if you don’t want stuff about you online, then don’t put it on there, or put all your settings to private.

Kerantli · 09/08/2018 15:06

The main thing I found was a very old photobucket account that I can't get access to, an article on a gay pride event that happened in 2011. and maybe my facebook profile in the list of people with my name, but think I've stopped that from showing up.

BitOutOfPractice · 09/08/2018 15:06

Yes, what exactly do potential employers google, if you have a common (or even fairly common) name?

Tentomidnight · 09/08/2018 15:06

I appear to share a name with a fashion designer. I can find no trace of myself, probably because I have always been extremely wary of identifying myself on social media!
I am very keen that my DCs never identify themselves publicly online for this reason.

BitOutOfPractice · 09/08/2018 15:07

In fact a potential client told me she'd stalked me online last week and said how impressed she was.

SilverySurfer · 09/08/2018 15:07

Just googled my name. I don't use FB or any social media and I don't exist as far as the internet is concerned, which pleases me.

BlackAmericanoNoSugar · 09/08/2018 15:08

Rather worryingly there is a summary of a court case by an ex employee against a company and there is an allegation that another employee with the same name as me made homophobic comments and was violent. I suppose that if I was looking for a job (which I'm not) a recruiter would at least check my cv and see that I had never worked for that company.

Yogafailure · 09/08/2018 15:08

I can't find a single thing linking to me and not a thing in google images either.

I must be common as muck, me Hmm

WhentheDealGoesDown · 09/08/2018 15:09

Just the 192.com and Twitter which is 2 posts from when we had no water supplyGrin.

Eve · 09/08/2018 15:10

The thing is are job seekers not allowed to go out and let their hair down. Are they not allowed a past. Just because there is a photo of Emma pissed back in 2012. does that mean she deserves to be punished with permanent unemployment. She could be perfect for the job. Did you never make a fool of yourself in your younger day.
I'd be more interested in a persons enthusiasm than and old picture on bloody face book.

That's what security settings are for on all these sites - lock the profiles down!

sheldonesque · 09/08/2018 15:10

I'm nowhere. I'd not get a job because folk would think I didn't exist...

checkingforballoons · 09/08/2018 15:11

Yes to this. There have been some borderline things when we’ve been recruiting but two stand out in my memory. The man with a profile full of the most disgusting racist rants you could imagine didn’t get an interview. The lady who had a mixture of posts about ‘knowing who her real friends are’ and ‘not having time for fakers’ and hamster related pictures and memes nearly got an interview just because I wanted to meet someone that had caused me to fall down a five year rabbit hole of Facebook scrolling, just to see if she had ever posted about anything else. She hadn’t. Hadn’t even mentioned the weather or gerbils or something. Just being real and hamsters.

WhentheDealGoesDown · 09/08/2018 15:14

Is no-one else on 192.com, I think it is from the electrol role

princesstiasmum · 09/08/2018 15:14

I have tried googling someone i need info about, but cant find anything about them or their family,
Is it possible to hide yourself? and why would? you, this family seem to have a lot of secrets

TheThirdOfHerName · 09/08/2018 15:15

It turns out I am googlable if you add my town to my full name. You can find out:

  • The first part of my postcode (192)
  • My education post-18 (the profile I created for the alumnae organisation of my school)

I include all that on my CV anyway, so that's OK.

OftenHangry · 09/08/2018 15:20

The thing is are job seekers not allowed to go out and let their hair down. Are they not allowed a past. Just because there is a photo of Emma pissed back in 2012. does that mean she deserves to be punished with permanent unemployment. She could be perfect for the job. Did you never make a fool of yourself in your younger day.
I'd be more interested in a persons enthusiasm than and old picture on bloody face book.

No one cares if she got pissed 6 years ago. 🙄

Everyone cares if she shares her employer on FB and then goes publicly sharing racist crap. People should realise that once they are employed they do in some way represent the company.
Would you go and buy a cake from bakery you know employs far right neo nazi? I don't think so.

Don't forget email. Oh the emails... So many people don't realise that "[email protected]", "[email protected]" and such are not doing anyone any favours too 😂

scaryteacher · 09/08/2018 15:21

I don't have FB or Twitter or IG, neither am I on LinkedIn. Will this be a problem when I return to the UK and start job hunting next year?

Enko · 09/08/2018 15:22

Hmm looking at my profile on facebook makes me think I spend to much time playing candy crush (going to switch to pet rescue)

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