Saturday, January 08, 2011

Your online presence can hurt your job opportunities

More than ever before, computer systems are being compromised by dishonest and unstable computer professionals, and the news is full of reports about theft and abuse by today's computer weirdos.


Via Mike Cory, an offshore DBA

The Internet now allows your bad acts to follow you for life

In this competitive economy, employers want to hire only the best of the best.

Many companies have rules to reject job candidates with bad credit because it shows disrespect for their contractual obligations, people who won't keep a promise . . .

Here is how they check out job applicants for a bad online presence.



Credit checks - A history of late payments indicates a lack of responsibility to honor your credit agreement.

Criminal checks - Sites like www.usasearch.com can find everything about you, even your history of traffic tickets. (which indicates disrespect for the law).

Job History verification - Employers know that they are allowed to ask the tell-all question "Would you re-hire this person".

Education verification - Employers will call the schools and request that the applicant provide transcripts.

Web presence verification - There are companies that perform "Google checks" on you, and they sometimes reveal questionable professional behavior.

Voting History - It’s your duty as an American to votes and voting records are public records. Some companies will reject applicants who have demonstrated that they are not good citizens.


Watch your web presence!

Whether it's simply altering data for personal gain or selling mission-critical information to your business competitors, management is challenged to screen-out anyone with a history or predisposition for dishonesty.



It's big business, and I have helped many large corporations choose trustworthy employees and identify posers. I especially like the "web search" background checks.

I remember a case where a job applicant was rejected for something that they did back in 1998 (it was an unprofessional remark in a USENET Newsgroup). In another memorable case, a job candidates was rejected because his Facebook page contained a photo of him holding a "bong" (a marijuana delivery vehicle).


Your Facebook pages can get you disqualified!

Read more about Evaluating computer weenies for acts of moral turpitude