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Online Nicknames Google better than Real?
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Sat Nov 24, 2007 08:49 AM
from the never-really-thought-about-that dept.
from the never-really-thought-about-that dept.
An anonymous reader writes "I was recently laid off, and during several of the interviews looking for a new job as a mid level IT manager, I was asked "So, I can just Google your name and find some of your work?" The answer is "yes", but searching for my name doesn't really bring up many results compared to searching for my online nickname which I have been using for about a decade. I am very tempted just to put that nickname on my resume. Is the professional, albeit technical, world ready for this step? Where should I put it? At the top or somewhere in the body?" And the other problem- how hard will it be to get a job when your nickname is something ridiculous. Boy I wish I would have thought of that in 95 ;)
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Submission: Online Nicknames Google better than Real? by Anonymous Coward
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yeah (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
- Ghost Dog.
- What?
- Ghost Dog.
- Ghost Dog?
- He said Ghost Dog!
- He calls himself Ghost Dog.
- A lot of these black guys, gangster type guys, they all got names like that.
- Is that true?
- He means like the rappers.
- The rappers got names like that -- Snoop Doggy Dogg, Ice Cube, Q-Tip, Method Man. My favourite was always Flavor Flav from Public Enemy.
- He got the funky fresh fly flava.
- "Live lyrics from the bank of reality. I kick da flyest dope manoeuvre technicality, to a
They followed my email address (Score:5, Interesting)
It actually helped them decide to choose me, since there are lots of questions you can't ask in an interview, but reading a LJ gives a more accurate representation of a person, anyway.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Your much too honest.
His much too honest? What about his much too honest?
Any serious geek would create a fake blog/live journal and fill it up with stuff they think the employer would want to hear.
Anyone capable of filling a livejournal page with enough quality content to make it look and read in a believable manner is likely talented and hardworking enough that the content might as well be real. Seriously, do you think that the kind of average loser that points to a fake livejoural page is going to be capable of filling it with enough plausible content to get away with it? No, it's going to be filled with thinly veiled "I am so awesome" posts, wi
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Want to employ me? email@myrealname.com
Know me on the net? email@onlinename.net
Interested in a project I've worked on? email@projectname.com
I think this is one of the advantages of owning a few domains and having a catch-all. My email address is whatever I want it to be @domain.com. So maybe for myspace, I would use myspace@celardore.net, facebook facebook@celardore.net, etc etc. At least I can look a
Re:They followed my email address (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:They followed my email address (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Same here, it used to be such a pain in the ass when bank managers would ask me if I knew anything about "cr3d17_h4ck3r@h4x0rs.com".
How to edit Wikipedia despite conflict of interest (Score:3, Informative)
When you get your own entry on wikipedia and it looks good (because you do work on OSS projects and other items) it launches you to the front of the Resume pool.
There's a right way and a suspicious way to post an article about yourself. The suspicious way is by creating the article directly in article space. The right way is as described in a section of the COI page [wikipedia.org]:
At least porn doesn't pop up when you google (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
But on a more serious note, wouldn't it be great if one of the search engines finally did the firstname, lastname thing correctly? It can't be that difficult to figure that one out in a way that it is correct most of the time.
Searching names on google & similar sites (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Searching names on google & similar sites (Score:4, Insightful)
For added bonus, a people search mode could expand semantic information. For example, if there is a page with the text "Firstname Lastname (somebody@google.com)", the search engine know knows one of the email addresses of that person, and can include it in the search, so you find pages with only the email address rather than the name. Or if there is a personal home page on slashdot (or facebook etc.), which lists both real name and handle, all slashdot postings (facebook entries etc) should be included.
You can do this kind of stuff manually today, but it takes a lot of time and effort.
Oh, and before somebody complains about privacy: this is all very public info already. Somebody who knows what they are doing can already collect that data in a hour or two.
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Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Sue your parents (Score:5, Funny)
Especially when their last name is Goldstein...
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Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Anonymous Reader? (Score:5, Funny)
Survey says... NOWHERE! (Score:3, Insightful)
The professional world can't stand when your real life and their little toy world-of-whoredom intersect in messy ways. When this happens, you hear about people fired for sexual harassment over a coworker uninvitedly reading your personal website or blog.
So, where should you list your online handle(s) on your resume? Nowhere! Thus the whole point of using a handle in the first place... Only an idiot would pretend it gives us true anonymity, but to a casual search for info on you, the two worlds will maintain some degree of separation. You want that effect.
Remember that once you make it to an actual interview, employers don't look for reasons to hire you, they look for reasons not to hire you. Think of it like a driving test where you start with 100 and can only go down... The less you do outside the scope of the test, the better. At your driving exam, did you ask to stop at the local head-shop to pick up some filters?
If you really feel the need to provide some online persona for an employer, make a new one. Create a cute little profile on all the big social networking sites, and post carefully censored historical details of your life.
Re:Survey says... NOWHERE! (Score:4, Insightful)
Here it is in a nutshell, if your potential employer is relying on a google search to make a decision, YOU FUCKED UP YOUR INTERVIEW.
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Yeah but what if... (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I don't see too much problem with that. [google.com] Although I am a bit disturbed that the Wikipedia entry for Indian Massacres comes up as the second hit.
Re:Yeah but what if... (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Yeah but what if... (Score:5, Funny)
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I didn't find much (Score:5, Funny)
Google turned me down (Score:5, Funny)
It all dependfs on the job (Score:3, Interesting)
However I can imagine that it IS relevant for some, especialy if you are a webdesigner or a developer, highly involved in OSS projects. I would just add them as past experience.
e.g. I have developed/designe XYZ under the alias foo@example.com
However you must also provide some proof that you actualy ARE that alias, I would say.
Early usenet is a killer (Score:5, Insightful)
Back in the early 90s usenet was "safe" because everyone knew that it got expired after a week or two. We all used our real names and email addresses too. Then someone found some old backup tapes 10 years later and handed them over to Google.
A friend of mine was quite a good troll back then, but now it haunts him due to his unique name. He's written Google and gotten them to delete his posts, but they won't delete other people's posts that quote him, so he's a bit screwed. I advised him to start posting lots of technical stuff to hopefully flood out the bad crap, and then write off the rest as youthful indiscretion.
Another friend who is now in his 40s got busted and convicted for dealing drugs when he was a teenager and spent a few years in jail. He's absolutely reformed now and eventually got a pardon from the governor of the state he was convicted in. He has no trouble getting a tech job these days -- except for banks. He doesn't even bother applying there.
Also, doing drugs won't stop you from being President these days, saying the wrong thing 20 years ago will.
Moral of the story, do drugs, don't talk shit on the net.
(Gawd, this tongue-in-cheek post is going to come back to haunt me someday I bet...)
Re:Early usenet is a killer (Score:5, Informative)
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Worked great for me! (Score:5, Funny)
Sincerely,
The Goatse guy
this can only count against you (Score:4, Interesting)
If you simply can't hold it in, at least make sure that no individuals or organisations can be identified.
On a resume, or in an interview, the potential employer is interested in what you can do for them, not your personal blog or your views on personal/irrelevant topics (unless they would be incompatible with the position you are interviewing for).
As a consequence, I can see almost no situations where an employee can write about their current or past work in a way that will not compromise their future employment prospects - leave online links out of your CV
Damn English (Score:5, Funny)
ClaimID (Score:4, Informative)
No reactions from employers yet? (Score:4, Insightful)
It's quite simple. Put your online nickname--if the Google results are flattering. If they're not, then don't. It's really no different from anything else you'd include on your resume. Left a good job on friendly terms? Put that. Perp-walked out of a job in handcuffs? Leave that out. There's not much nuance here: If someone else shares your nickname, and that guy's a dick, you probably shouldn't put your nickname, lest you be put in the position of having to explain his posts. If you use your nickname in porn discussion forums online, leave it out.
On the other hand, maybe your nick links people to logs of great technical discussions you've participated in, on IRC. Or it links to yourself being helpful on a technical mailing list in your field of specialty, or even just yourself showing interest in your field of specialty. For pete's sake, of course you want your employer to see that. As someone who reads resumes and does interviews, that's extremely valuable information to me. I would check it on Google, and I would be interested in what I found there, and if it was positive, I would be strongly leaning toward you before I even picked up a phone to set up the interview.
--
p.s. god I love having a unique name. Thanks to my name and many years of contributions to some high-profile open source stuff, you literally have to go 15 pages deep into Google's results for my name, before you find even a single entry that's not legitimately about me. If I ever have to find another job, I can guarantee you I'll be telling people to Google me.
Well Mr. Goatse, (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Better? Depends on your view (Score:4, Funny)
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Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Make your own portfolio (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re: MultiLayered Personas (Score:3, Interesting)
A profound clash on the net is between "goofing off" and building net credibility. For the occasional snark comment, that's what AC is for. I have put a fair amount of effort into this "brand name" to ensure that it's reasonably respected.
However, I still wouldn't actively disclose it to any employer. I consider it in the realm of private research mixed with entertainment. If an employer needs to know what my successes at work are - let's have them talk to a previous employer! A former manage
Re: MultiLayered Personas (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:just like any other alias (Score:5, Informative)
Absolutley not. I interview a *lot* of people and I have never seen a CV (resume) that lists any nicknames, alter-egos, aliases or anything that would point to the candidate having any kind of online presence. It woud probably count against them if they thought this was important.
I certainly would never follow up any links to online data in a CV.
A lot of countries have anti-discrimination laws. You would be on very sticky ground if you rejected a candidate on the grounds of information you had gleaned online (esp. if it was related to a class of discrimination). For instance if someone's online diary said "I plan to start a family in a year or two" You could not ask this type of question in an interview and if you rejected them by knowing that this was their intention you could end up being sued.
BTW, I'm assuming UK law here.
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Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Only let them see what you want (Score:5, Interesting)
Digging deeper it turned out that some of what he had listed as example applications that he claimed he wrote were just someone else's pre-canned scripts which he made some tweaks to before putting online. We didn't hire him, but it didn't stop him from applying with us several more times. I wanted to interview the guy and ask him why his blog and his resume disagreed, but I guess my boss just figured it was a waste of time toying with someone who lied to us out of the gate. Thing is we didn't need someone with 6 years of experience, we actually would have preferred someone with 3 months of CF experience since we were trying to hire someone to get the many day-to-day small scale maintenance work (static web content updates and the like) off the shoulders of the core application developers.
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Re:Only let them see what you want (Score:5, Funny)
Then's what was the problem? You lied about what experience you needed , he lied about what experience he had.
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Re:Glad I thought ahead. (Score:5, Interesting)
I've got a reasonably unique name, and I decided a while back that using it as my online name is a good way to keep myself honest and avoiding the temptation to do something stupid.
I say "reasonably unique," of course... there is actually another person I know of with my same first and last name; he's the CEO of an RFID company in Kansas. I've always thought of contacting him, but I was actually born in Kansas (moved away when I was 3) and there's that tiny fear of finding out that he's me.
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Re:WTF ? (Score:4, Interesting)
Any mature person can tell you that you really don't want naked bong party pictures floating around. Unfortunately young people are by definition not mature.
A silly online nick really would not be an issue for me as an employer provided you DON'T get the goatse guy. It't the content that counts.
The older I get, the more *I* am interviewing *them*. If you have a sense of humor and indulge in some silliness on your offtime you really shouldn't be embarassed. OTOH googling your name produces the goatse picture, you really ought to consider a name change.
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Re: Being Suttle (Score:3, Funny)
Mickey E. Suttle is a controversial and infamous self-proclaimed Star Wars fan who posts so-called Star Wars news, images and FAQs on his website, supershadow.com almost every day, using the nickname of SuperShadow. Many of his claims, most notably that he is friends with George Lucas and possesses advanced copies of screenplays, have made him a controversial figure among Star Wars fans.
The Whois service reveals that supershadow.com is owned by Mickey Suttle, of Hickory, North Carolina, wh