A friend advertised online for an Office Administrator.
Three interesting resumes came to the top. She googled each person’s name.
The first search turned up a Facebook page. There was a picture of the applicant, drinking beer from a funnel. Under hobbies, the first entry was, “binge drinking.”
The second search turned up a personal webpage (a good one, actually). The most recent entry said something like, “I am applying for some entry level jobs that are below me, and I’m annoyed by it. I’ll certainly quit the minute I get a new one which matches my papers.”
And the third? There were only six matches, and the sixth was from the local online newspaper department, indicating that the applicant had been arrested for shoplifting two years earlier with bunch of friends.
Three for three.
Google never forgets.
Of course, you don’t have to be a drunk, a thief or a bitter failure for this to backfire. Everything you do now ends up in your permanent record. The best plan is to overload Google with a long tail of good stuff and to always act as if you’re on Candid Camera, because you are