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Submitted by dweyland on
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I heard Leo Laporte mention that he had a MySpace page. It made me think it might be a good way to manage what others find out about you when they google you. Does anybody do that? I should rephrase that - do any professionals do that? I'm sure most of the 20 somethings do...

I googled an old friend once and found what looked like a press release about his most recent job, but it was clear that he wrote it himself and probably paid some site to host it. But it sounded cool.

Other thoughts on how to manage what potential employers find about you when they google you?

Thanks,

Dan

Mark's picture
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I wouldn't put up a MySpace page for a million dollars, unless I was quite young and interviewing for a position that had significant connection to, needs related to, and market knowledge about, youth and/or media culture.

Interviewing and recruiting are an artificial reality created by large organizations to keep you out. The default answer is no. More data - particularly data that is not formatted in a way that recruiters are used to (yes, even hip recruiters) increases the reasons they could say no.

I would bet that what most people would create which they would be comfortable showing to companies (and it WOULD be found, thanks to Google and other efforts companies ABSOLUTELY use) would be off-putting to anyone else but a recruiter, and that which your friends or casual acquaintenaces might like would astound many companies.

Focus on results. MySpace would be advertising. Advertising doesn't sell products - it makes people aware. Awareness isn't the issue here.

Mark

itilimp's picture
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I'd say that it is worth being aware that someone could potentially google your real name (my colleagues and I have a habit of doing this when we get a new colleague join the team, it's had some interesting and not always pleasant results) - so you should yourself be aware of what results may come up and make every effort to make sure that those results do not reflect in a negative way upon you.

If there is anything you are interested in that may do, then I'd recommend you use an alias and create an e-mail address specifically for that alias's use.