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An Open Letter to the Internet
On June 8, 2007 by Jamie Madigan
Dear members of the Internet,
Look, you need to stop acting surprised when you post embarrassing stuff about yourself online only to have it come around and cost you a job offer. Employers are increasingly doing cursory Google searches on you while they're bored at work, and they're picking up on stuff like that time you got SOOOO hammered or that time you stole a stole that street sign for some reason that sounded good at the time. Possibly because it was the same time as that time you go SOOOO hammered. And when they've got more applicants than openings, employers may use this stuff to flick your application into the trash bin.
I know, I know --it's not fair, and neither is it even actually a productive (or safe) selection tool for the employer. And sometimes employers (or schools) make really dumb calls and read too much into things, like the woman who was denied a teaching certificate because of a MySpace page with a picture of her wearing a pirate hat, drinking from a plastic cup, and a caption that read "Drunken Pirate." Yes, that's dumb on the university but honestly a lot of the things I see on blogs, MySpace pages, YouTube, Flickr, and Facebook is just mind boggling.
Here's what you need to understand: The Internet is a public place. It's not unlike standing on a street corner and saying things to anyone who wanders by, except that it's all recorded, indexed, and searchable by your prospective employers. So don't say or show anything there that you would be mortified to see show up in a job interview. Or, for that matter, a discussion with your spouse, kids, parents, neighbors, friends, teachers, or dog.
If you must have a personal blog, keep it clean if you want to play it safe. Not every post needs to read like a cover letter, but neither should you willfully incriminate yourself or come across as some kind of semi literate nincompoop. Making hiring decisions based on information found on the web isn't fair and it isn't valid, but it happens.
And if all else fails, you can start a website related to your work so that they actually DO find something relevant.
Sinceerely,
--Jamie
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