October 2002
Anonymity is Out:
The Internet Global Village of Public Information is the New World
that Job Hunters have to live with
By
President of Workforce Associates
and author of
NetWork: Maximizing Your Career Resources on the Internet
Available online and in print from Author House
Since I last wrote about double-checking your resume for any misrepresentations or outright lies, there have been several more articles on this subject in the major press. For example, the New York Times had a long article this summer about the effects of a Google search on one's personal privacy. It's become all too common to type in a name in Google and watch all kinds of information - correct or erroneous - come up in front of your eyes. Have you ever asked Google about your own name? If you haven't, prepare yourself for a possible rude shock.
It is becoming more and more difficult in this era of endless information through the Internet to keep one's past hidden or even to reinvent oneself in the American tradition. Information that has been printed in newspapers, school newsletters, yearbooks, etc. can find itself online with your name attached. And as you're probably already aware, government records are increasingly moving online, including tax assessments, court documents, voter registration, deeds, bankruptcies, and crime records. Even traditional barriers are falling as old online discussion postings, wedding registries, and photos from school performances are becoming centralized in a searchable form on the Internet.
A major disadvantage of instant Internet profiling by personal name is that there is no quality control and therefore little protection against misinterpretation. The fragments of people's lives that emerge on the Internet are somewhat haphazard. They can be incomplete, out of context, misleading or simply wrong. Here are ways to limit what potential employers can find, according to the New York Times.
"For the job seeker, I'm urging caution and just to be a little more street smart on the information superhighway," says Michael Allison, chairman and chief executive of International Business Research, which performs executive level pre-employment screenings. IBR often uses search engines "to see if there's anything out there that might be interesting to a potential employer." He also suggests limiting how much information you divulge on your personal website.
1) Periodically check yourself that there are no erroneous references to your good name. If there is information that you'd prefer not to have publicly available, contact the website's owner or Webmaster. Google says that its database will typically reflect the changes within six to eight weeks.
2) When making postings to the Internet, online discussion groups, or email lists that archive messages, consider using a pseudonym or nickname rather than your full formal name. Search engines routinely sift through these and can uncover everything from your hobbies and sexual proclivities to your political leanings. Data can be stored forever in online backwaters to haunt you during a job search.
3) Take steps to prevent a personal website or weblog from being noted by the robotic programs that "crawl" and index the Internet. Information about how to do that is available at www.robotstxt.org
4) If you sign a petition or make a donation to a political group, understand that the information could become public and searchable on the Internet.
5) If you want to put personal photos on the Internet, consider using an online photo service that can "share" photos with families and friends using a password but are not indexed for search engines.
6) Remember that email sent in confidence can be forwarded, intentionally or inadvertently, and even wind up on the Internet.
7) Keep as much control over your resume as possible. Experts recommend carefully reading a website's privacy policy before submitting a resume to determine the circumstances under which it will release your personal information.
Next month we'll talk about how to prime your references to help you in your job search without jeopardizing their integrity. There are many new websites that can help you and your references work easily and smoothly with potential employers.
Keep sending me your queries and electronic resumes to vet. I greatly enjoy getting to know my readers and helping you through the difficult quagmire of job searching. I can be reached at jlommel@WorkforceAssociates.com
Enjoy the Fall foliage during October!
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