Employers Using Web To Learn of Employees Outside Life

For Immediate Release | Aug 23, 2006
https://olcplc.com/public/media?1156349158

Don't write anything that YOU wouldn't want to someone to read, because in reality, they are.

Personal blogs, social networks, and personal websites are filled with tons of information about you, if you post such information. Sometimes the information is damaging to you, your career, or even chances for advancement.

Many recruiters and executives regularly use the Internet to research candidates and potential employees. What they find is often times very shocking.

Try these examples:

• A teacher was fired from a prior job whose school board included her firing in online meeting minutes.
  
• A student from Buffalo, New York, was expelled for threatening to burn down his principal's house on the social networking account on MySpace.com
  
• A professor was fired from a prominent university because she was overly critical of her employer in her online blog.
  
• A former Delta Air Lines flight attendant says she was fired weeks after she posted photos of herself in uniform on her Internet blog

Overall, many recruiters suggest job seekers regularly check what the web has to say about them. If something negative is found, career experts suggest you ask the website owner to remove the content, helping improve your chances for that dream job or even the keep the one you have.

The sooner, the better.

These days, when someone wants to learn more about themselves and what others are saying, the first thing they're likely to do is type their name into the Google search box.

Online search engines use special programs called web spiders that visit websites and catalog the information they find, including individual names. Google, the world’s most popular online search engine, has cataloged well over eight billion web pages of information and online users can search for their own name, known as “googling yourself” in an attempt find who is talking about them.

So much for Big Brother watching, apparently we all are.
###

The above article was issued by an OLC attorney when he previously worked in corporate operations and communications. Because these articles are highly informative, they are provided as a service of this law firm.
>br?