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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:
DrWhy · 09/08/2018 16:29

So you get my Linked in profile and photo, my role on the committee of a professional organisation and slightly randomly a photograph of myself and DS that looks like it’s come from another organisations Facebook page (at one of their events) nothing else. Not on 192.com not any social media accounts.
Maiden name is even less helpful.
My e-mail address throws up one academic paper from ages back and the fact that it’s on a distribution list that someone is selling.
Other than the very last point I’m quite relieved.
I do wonder how often recruiters doing this sort of thing get the wrong person though. I guess my Linked In is pretty clearly correct and once you’ve got an image of me you can quickly discount many of the others.

Frogletmamma · 09/08/2018 16:31

Nothing comes up under my name. I only post under pseudoyms.

IDontEatFriedTurtle · 09/08/2018 16:32

I googled myself, I have done before, but this time it brought up some dodgy ass site in America that shows all my previous addresses in the states and family members! Date of birth etc. It won't take the details down unless I pay a monthly subscription! Shock

Oh how I will miss the EU when it's gone.

SchadenfreudePersonified · 09/08/2018 16:32

There are more of me than I realised. One of the other me's a has a son with the same name as my DS, and a DH who has the same name my mother was going to call me had I been a boy . . .

. . . I have now officially entered the Twilight Zone . . .

Loyaultemelie · 09/08/2018 16:32

If I google me all I get is the school I attended and my fb cover pic.

BitchQueen90 · 09/08/2018 16:34

I do not use my surname anywhere on any of my social media profiles so it's not possible to find me.

DorisDances · 09/08/2018 16:34

Recruiters should have a clear policy about checking on social media - as this thread highlights, bias can arise when you have information on some candidates but not all.

Figlessfig · 09/08/2018 16:36

Googled my name - I don’t appear till page 7, where there’s a Companies House thing.
People sharing my name include a prominent Australian writer, a lesbian performance artist, a lawyer, a doctor, an academic and an acquaintance of Jacob Rees-Mogg.
I knew my name was fairly common in Scotland, but was shocked by how many there are all over the place.

soloula · 09/08/2018 16:36

I'm always amazed at the amount of people we pass over because of downright offensive stuff posted on their Facebook profile - I live in the west of Scotland where there is definitely a problem with religious bigotry. If folk don't lock down their profiles then it's usually quite easy to narrow down what person it is, even with a common name, as we have their CVs and people are too quick to put down everywhere they've worked in the last umpteen years. If you don't want employers to look you up, lock down your profile people.

Also, that email address you thought was funny when you were 16 (e.g. [email protected]) isn't quite so amusing to potential employers.

TowerRingInferno · 09/08/2018 16:37

Nothing at all comes up. I deleted my FB account a few months ago.

polkadotpixie · 09/08/2018 16:39

I'm the only one of me in the world thanks to my unusually spelled first name and double barrelled married name

I don't hide on social media and I'm not really bothered if someone doesn't want to hire me because they found a photo of me drunk in the student union from 2010...I probably wouldn't want to work there anyway if they were that uptight 😂

I don't post anything discriminatory but I am quite vocal about animal rights on my FB which rubs some people up the wrong so take me or leave me really

Judashascomeintosomemoney · 09/08/2018 16:40

Apparently I don’t exist.........

Shampooeeee · 09/08/2018 16:43

I once searched for a woman I was potentially going to employ and found fb photos of her riding a giant inflatable cock.
We had a good laugh about it amongst the management but she didn’t get the job. The job required someone discreet and that wasn’t the impression she gave.

LakieLady · 09/08/2018 16:43

What would you think OP if you couldn't find anything online about an applicant at all? I don't use my real name on social media and I don't use Linkedin either. I definitely exist, just don't like the idea of anyone googling me.

I have a very low online profile too, and I check it every now and again. I don't use FB, don't post pics anywhere, don't use my real name on any forums or comments columns, and that's how I like it.

A previous employer put my ID card pic on their website, with my name and work contact number, and I got it taken down.

notacooldad · 09/08/2018 16:44

We are reminded to do this from time to time from or senior managers.
When I put mine in I just get some Ikea furniure!

LionsTeeth · 09/08/2018 16:44

There's a school of English in Italy that has my name so that's all that ever comes up for me!

Botanicbaby · 09/08/2018 16:54

DGRossetti

Googling myself brings up online posts from 1987

How? Did you work in IT? That’s pre-internet for the masses, isn’t it? Shock

ThanksForAllTheFish · 09/08/2018 16:55

I have tried googling myself lots of times and I don’t appear anywhere in the first 10 page of search results at all (I gave up looking any further than that as it was linking lots of random stuff that contained both my names but not together). No photos of me at all on google images. My Facebook is locked down so any non friends that look at my profile see about 3 very boring profile pictures. Nothing very exciting in there anyway, day to day stuff, perhaps a few political things maybe commented on around election time but nothing offensive. My Twitter isn’t in my real name and has only has about 15 tweets - mainly complaining to talktalk about my rubbish broadband- my linkedin is just like a basic cv. I think I still have an instagram account that was last updated in 2012 and has photos of my (now deceased) dog and scenery only. I don’t have snapchat.

My online profile is very dull and I would be surprised if people could even find me in the first place.

Gettingbackonmyfeet · 09/08/2018 16:57

I used to search partly because I was recruiting in drug and alcohol addiction services so it really wasn't appropriate to have pictures of a candidate drink or promoting alcohol on their FB (and amazing how many of them there were) so if it wasn't locked down it was concerning they didn't understand their clients or the impact of their behaviour

Also a reason I had a "no adding clients " rule for them

Wish I could have pushed to a " no adding work colleagues"rule given the amount of sodding drama it involved ....i accept it would have been draconian but frankly dealing with a disciplinary because of what one person wrote about another on FB gave me the rage

(Disciplinary because work was mentioned and bringing the company into disrepute etc)

DGRossetti · 09/08/2018 17:00

How? Did you work in IT? That’s pre-internet for the masses, isn’t it?

because I was a precocious student and got involved with an open source project (using Sperry Assembler) that was shared on JANET. JANET connected to ARPANET, and my name was in the submitted bugfixes and new functionality, archived for posterity, and indexed by Google.

So, Mr Rossetti, how much experience have you got ?

Well, I was online before you were born, and contributed to several RFCs (is what I think, but don't say Smile)

LakieLady · 09/08/2018 17:02

When I put mine in I just get some Ikea furniure!

I know you! You're Billy Bookcase, aren't you?

mamaslatts · 09/08/2018 17:15

I have a very unusual name. However, when you run it through facebook there is a picture of a woman in her pants from behind. It is not me.Hmm

Atthebottomofthesea · 09/08/2018 17:20

My online google persona is great, jewellery designer, accountant, teacher, lawyer, Dr (both medical and academic)

Me? Not a lot. Nothing really on my FB profile.

notacooldad · 09/08/2018 17:22

When I put mine in I just get some Ikea furniure!

I know you! You're Billy Bookcase, aren't you?

Got it in one!!!

DGRossetti · 09/08/2018 17:28

DS used to work for an SEO outfit. He only had to put his name on a page, and it became top-ranking ....