Ask Slashdot: Is an Online Identity Important When Searching For Technical Jobs? 358
First time accepted submitter quintessentialk writes "I'm looking for a new engineering job. I'm in my early 30s, and have a degree and some experience. I don't have an online presence. Does it matter? Is a record of tweets, blog posts, articles, etc. expected for prospective employees these days? What if one is completely un-googleable (i.e., nothing comes up, good or bad)? Though I haven't been 'trying' to hide, I only rarely use my full name online and don't even have a consistent pseudonym. I don't have a website, and haven't blogged or tweeted. I'm currently in a field which does not publish. Should I start now, or is an first-time tweeter/blogger in 2013 worse than someone with no presence at all?"
As the song asks... (Score:3, Insightful)
What do you do do?
If you're in IT especially and you're invisible you're suspicious. Lots of job applicants. What makes you stand out?
Re:As the song asks... (Score:5, Insightful)
If you're in IT especially and you're invisible you're suspicious. Lots of job applicants. What makes you stand out?
I expect to see this opinion in more than a few posts on this thread, yet I'm surprised.
I just can't imagine how spending one's time "tweeting" or maintaining a Facebook page has much to do with what kind of employee I want, unless perhaps those "tweets" particularly socially unacceptable.
I *might* do a search of technical forums to see what kind of tech questions and answers my applicant is giving / asking.
But why would I - why SHOULD I - give a shit about my applicant's "tweets" unless perhaps they deal with bizarre rape fantisies or something, in which case I might reasonably wonder why my applicant isn't smart enough to use an alias?
In other words, in my opinion, your "tweets" and Facebook prattle have no interest to me in terms of evaluating your job skills. In fact, I might be uncomfortable with someone who spends too much time in an on-line world.
Re: As the song asks... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: As the song asks... (Score:5, Funny)
If your idea of "having an online presence" is posting everything twice so you double your 'presence', I would only hire you for marketing ;-)
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PHP? You're fired....
Re: As the song asks... (Score:2, Interesting)
I agree completely. I would more likely hire someone with no Facebook or Twitter account because people with these, tend to spend half their work day checking, updating, chatting on it rather then working
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Re: As the song asks... (Score:2)
They're probably writing all the APIs and libraries you're using.
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Re:As the song asks... (Score:5, Interesting)
I wonder what these guys with 100,000+ contributions to StackOverflow are doing with their life.
Some of them are doing quite well, actually. I have been a frequent reader of Alan Storm's [alanstorm.com] site, as he seems to be one of the very very few who have managed to take a large chunk of poorly documented code and literally write a book on it. He's a regular contributor to Stackoverflow (and the Magento offshoot) and I can say without a doubt, his "online presence" makes him a very sought-after developer (aside from, you know, being a good developer to begin with).
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I expect to see this opinion in more than a few posts on this thread, yet I'm surprised.
I just can't imagine how spending one's time "tweeting" or maintaining a Facebook page has much to do with what kind of employee I want, unless perhaps those "tweets" particularly socially unacceptable.
Two words: Technological familiarity. Just because a person managed to get a degree and some experience doesn't mean they are good at what they do. Using more "tech" shows greater ability to adapt and learn. To a strong degree, it can also be a stronger indicator of personality traits which may help the job and also show those traits which could hurt the job. After all, someone who tweets and posts pictures about getting hammered at work (or any other imaginable bad practices) probably isn't the applicant y
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I keep seeing positions that ask for your github username and list of opensource projects you've committed to.
Which is a bit narrow minded, I've done probably 30 hours worth of coding in my free time last week, but none of it's in github, and never will be.
Not all the opensource stuff I use at work is buggy e
Re:As the song asks... (Score:5, Insightful)
Which is a bit narrow minded, I've done probably 30 hours worth of coding in my free time last week, but none of it's in github, and never will be.
This.
Some of us are working on non-open-source projects, because we have ideas we think might be profitable.
Some of us are working on projects that may become open source but don't want to publish until they're ready for end users (which could, in many cases, take years).
Some of us are working for startups that demand 80 hours a week of our time and don't have any time left for personal projects.
Not everyone can be judged by the same metrics.
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Some of us are working for startups that demand 80 hours a week of our time and don't have any time left for personal projects.
Is there a reason why the entire stack of line-of-business code created for this startup has to consist entirely of "non-open-source projects"?
Re:As the song asks... (Score:5, Insightful)
"Which is a bit narrow minded..."
Thank you for confirming my own opinion. In the past, when I was looking for more work, several times I've been asked before just about anything else if I had a github account, and and under what name.
I've spent a lot of time on private projects under NDA, which obviously don't go on github. I've offered to supply redacted sections of code. Etc. But it was clear in a couple of instances that having a strong github presence was necessary before they wold even consider someone.
That practice discriminates against people who are too busy actually working and trying to make a living to spend 100 hours on somebody's open source project. Sure, it's a good thing to do. But don't punish people who don't have as much opportunity as others.
Using github as a primary, or even worse only, criterion for hiring is just not very smart. Without claiming to be one of the best and brightest myself, I can see that by doing so they are rejecting some of the best and brightest out of hand, which does both parties no good.
Sure, take github and the like as a couple of extra brownie points in the developer's favor. Everything else being equal, I'd hire someone who is involved in charitable work over the other guy... but the key phrase is "everything else being equal". I would not use it as a primary basis for hiring in a technical field.
Re:As the song asks... (Score:4, Interesting)
Attorneys need to do probono work to keep their license, why is it too much for you to carve out a few hours to put up a portfolio of your work on GitHub?
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Attorneys sometimes fudge that "probono work" label. ... and sometimes the client finds out, as a friend of mine did.
That said... what "your work"? I been working for companies, writing proprietary code. The closest I could come with that work is, as a prior poster said, "redacted work done for a previous employer". At which point, why am I putting it on GitHub instead of sending it directly to inquiring employers?
Oh, you are saying "do a little work for an open source project", are you? Couple week
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I *might* do a search of technical forums to see what kind of tech questions and answers my applicant is giving / asking.
The applicant probably have posted on such forums using a handle or assumed name. Many people don't use their real name
Furthermore, some unrelated person may have posted to tech forums and twitter using the same name as the prospective hire.
There may be unsettling tweets posted by a twitter or facebook account holder with the name of the prospective hire's real name, BUT the poste
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"The applicant probably have posted on such forums using a handle or assumed name. Many people don't use their real name"
This is a very good point.
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For the most part, people arn't hired purely for their technical skill.
Software development is mostly a team sport. How you fit in with the office culture, how easy you are to work with, how much ego and asshattery you bring to the table are as relevant or even more relevant than your technical chops. This becomes increasingly true as you move up the ladder.
There's still jobs that require the cliche "guy who spends every waking moment in his basement hacking out killer code" employee, but it's becoming a ra
Re: As the song asks... (Score:5, Insightful)
Exactly. Facebook and Twitter is not "online presence" in which IT employers are interested. GitHub, Ohloh, commits to free software projects, mailing lists etc. - that's "online presence" you should care about. You'll for sure have a good impression of someone if you put his name in Google and then you immediately see commits to various VCS repositories. That's also some kind of proof of his skills.
Re: As the song asks... (Score:5, Interesting)
Exactly. Facebook and Twitter is not "online presence" in which IT employers are interested. GitHub, Ohloh, commits to free software projects, mailing lists etc. - that's "online presence" you should care about. You'll for sure have a good impression of someone if you put his name in Google and then you immediately see commits to various VCS repositories. That's also some kind of proof of his skills.
Yeah, but so are the references from his previous employer. I know I for one *used* to contribute to free software on a regular basis, but these days rarely seem to find time. You'll find my name on mailing lists making suggestions, filing bug reports, and so on, but you probably won't see more than a handful of commits by me since long before github existed. Possibly even before git existed. That doesn't mean I haven't been doing work in a very wide variety of fields with a lot of different technologies. It's only by reading my CV and following up my references that you'd find out about that work, though. Or you could ask me in interview.
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Then understand that people who do find time to do those things will stand out more than you.
So I'm being penalized for working an 80 hour week for my current employer?
Is that really a sensible hiring policy?
Re: As the song asks... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: As the song asks... (Score:5, Insightful)
Working 80 hours a week is dumb.
I don't hire dumb people.
Re: As the song asks... (Score:5, Interesting)
...or, perhaps, people who enjoy their work and who want to make a difference.
In most groups, perhaps 20% of the people get half the work done. And, they tend to get great raises, promotions, flexibility, and plum projects -- and, yes, they end up working more hours a week than most of the other 80% (sometimes there's a sad case where someone that isn't very competent either manages to hold onto their job by producing enough work -- but working twice as many hours as others to do so, or who works so hard that softhearted managers can't bring themselves to fire them at the first opportunity).
If you think working 80 hours a week will get you in that top 20%, you ARE dumb.
Competent programmers have more than 2x the productivity of the average ones, and GOOD programmers have 10x more productivity than average. They can easily get into the top 20% productivity group by working only 40 hours a week and still make a difference, at the same time out-producing those average programmers working 80 hours a week, and keeping themselves fresh to handle any emergencies.
If you need to work 80 hours a week on a regular basis, you just proved yourself to be an average programmer, at best.
Re: As the song asks... (Score:5, Insightful)
Translation: They are 19 years old, have no responsibilities, do not have to make a mortgage or a payroll and since they are willing to work for free, will be very flexible when it comes to pay and hours.
Have a nice day.
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If marriage = indentured servitude then I'd much rather be the indentured servant of my wife than the indentured servant of my boss. (Celebrating 12 years of marriage today.)
Re: As the song asks... (Score:5, Interesting)
Are you saying that if someone is good at their job and their employer likes them they shouldn't leave their job?
Re: As the song asks... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: As the song asks... (Score:5, Insightful)
"f his previous employer really thought he was good, he wouldn't be looking for a new job. I give a glowing reference to any ex-employee who asks for one. Why should I care if you hire a turd? When I am hiring, I have found references to be so unreliable, that I don't even both to ask for them."
Absolute garbage.
First, I often work on a contract basis ("freelance", if you prefer). Projects only last so long, then they are over. So yes, I am looking for work, and have had a lot of short-term "employers". I also have some glowing, HONEST reviews.
" I give a glowing reference to any ex-employee who asks for one. Why should I care if you hire a turd?"
Because this is grossly hypocritical behavior. No doubt you would be pissed off to no end if someone else did the same to you, and you hired someone with great reviews who turned out to be a lemon. You appear to be one of those who pollute the entire job market with their bullshit, then wonder why they can't find good workers.
"For my last opening I got 200 resumes. I interviewed five of them. If your resume doesn't stand out, there will be no interview."
See, there you go. Contradicting yourself.
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Because, if I were to hire the person and find that they were not what you said, I would remember that for years -- and when your resume came around, I'd toss it. Yes, I've done that - it's a small world even in the high tech areas -- mostly because people tend to specialize so have overlapping networks with others in the same areas of interest. Mostly, I assume that the reason you thought a train wreck was
Re: As the song asks... (Score:5, Insightful)
Exactly. Facebook and Twitter is not "online presence" in which IT employers are interested. GitHub, Ohloh, commits to free software projects, mailing lists etc. - that's "online presence" you should care about. You'll for sure have a good impression of someone if you put his name in Google and then you immediately see commits to various VCS repositories. That's also some kind of proof of his skills.
And turning the issue upside down, why in the name of all that is rational would you want to work for a company that evaluated you by social web posts rather than work product, and education?
What does that say about your chances of getting fair evaluations, promotions, and advancement based on your efforts and work output?
Unless you were seeking employment with a political party or a church, I would consider any such digging into web posting as violation of civil rights by that company, akin to asking how I voted, or checking my church affiliation, or demanding a list of past girlfriends.
Run away from such employers like your hair is on fire.
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Github commits are NOT social posts. They tell you if you are hiring a 9 to 5 sheep or technology enthusiast.
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and mostly free Heatlh Care
As a Canadian who is very happy with our health-care system, can I please remind you that our health-care is *not* free.
It is single-payer (the government) and we are not charged based on use. It is also much cheaper on a per-capita basis for roughly equivalent care in the US, although for fortunate people like myself, it's probably more expensive than in the US, as my taxes probably cover the health-care expenditures for 1.5 - 2 other less fortunate families.
But to call it free
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If your idea of "having an online presence" is tweeting and having a Facebook page, I would not hire you
Notice this response makes no provision for the applicant's skills, knowledge or education.
Like all other hiring managers you are a liar, a cheat and a hypocrite cunt.
Re:As the song asks... (Score:4, Insightful)
Isn't _everything_ ultimately useless? especially working for some kind of finacial reward which you'll spend on ultimately useless possessions or experiences.
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Do you have a pain in all the diodes on your left side?
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especially working for some kind of finacial reward which you'll spend on ultimately useless possessions or experiences.
What, like Shelter, food, water, plumbing, air conditioning, telephone, internet connectivity?
I for one would want to be the kind of person that gets a lot of financial reward.
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"On-line presence" = Wasting time on narcissistic, unproductive and ultimately useless activities.
I have an online presence. I post on Slashdot. I chat on IRC.
Not that I would dare provide a prospective employer with my pseudonyms, or dare post my real name (instead of an assumed name or chosen nae) to my profile on Slashdot, Twitter, Facebook, or any other online service.
Re:As the song asks... (Score:5, Insightful)
If you don't have a facebook page (with friends...) the question of 'why not' arises.
Are you kidding? You state this on Slashdot?
There are dozens of reasons NOT to have a Facebook account. There are even good reasons for not having a Linkdn account (been spammed there more times than I care to recall). Twitter?
Good grief kids, you can have an active social and professional life with just a telephone. It's not hard - billions of people do it.
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Yes, you are correct on all points. I refuse to whore out my private contacts to advertisers, even if that would make me more 'acceptable' in the eyes of certain employers, and in this day and age (unfortunately) that does make me a 'wierdo' (do you hear the dolphins dying [theoatmeal.com]?)
Email, phone and in person is more than enough to keep current with my group of friends and family. No, I don't have 1,000 paper friends listed on Facebook to impress others: I have a couple dozen close friends with whom I actually sha
Re:As the song asks... (Score:5, Interesting)
What do you do do?
If you're in IT especially and you're invisible you're suspicious. Lots of job applicants. What makes you stand out?
Work experience, knowledge, the ability to share and communicate it directly, personality, hygene... the list goes on and on. I work with a blogger extrovert. His fascinating blog post with pictures, formatted tables, etc. that details his 14 year journey of using Microsoft mobile devices might be delightful for a hiring manager to read. I hope that hiring manager notices the post was made during work hours. And please no "he was on a break". It's a pattern of behavior. Even when the blog posts relate to the technology he uses at work, it takes him away from being a resource. It's fine if you want to tell the world what daddy did at work today. I don't see why an employer would tolerate it on their time.
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hygene
Was that supposed to be "hygiene"? Your local work environment must be really desperate for people if knowing how to use a toothbrush and soap is supposed to be a relevant qualification.
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hygene
Was that supposed to be "hygiene"?
Yes. Early Sunday mornings my spelling also stinks.
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Your local work environment must be really desperate for people if knowing how to use a toothbrush and soap is supposed to be a relevant qualification.
Look up "necessary, but not sufficient."
Re: As the song asks... (Score:2)
Personally I try to keep my casual online name(s) and real name separate. And Facebook private. I don't mind a prospective employer viewing my LinkedIn profile and seeing who I am professionally, but who I am in private is my business apart from the official responses given in the interview and LinkedIn etc.
I don't need my interviewer knowing that I spend a lot of free time on a my little pony fan site. I'm not that stupid.
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Depends on what you are applying for (Score:5, Informative)
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OTOH I've had several talks where having contributed to open source projects was counted as an advantage.
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Employers asking for your social-media passwords is now illegal in several states. [reuters.com]
Do you need a clearance? (Score:5, Insightful)
If your technical job requires a TS or above clearance, it is best ot have very little presence. Party life or drug refrences in your posts will work against you in your background investigation for the clearance.
Not a single police force (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Not a single police force (Score:4, Insightful)
Probably has a lot to do with the fact that marijuana is still a schedule-1 drug, and completely illegal at the federal level.
Re:Not a single police force (Score:5, Funny)
Not a single police force has tried to hire me since I started using medical marijuana. Just try to get a pilot's license! Oddly, if you drink, they'll trust you not to fly drunk but if you use medical marijuana they won't trust you at all.
1. More people die when you (try to) fly at 18 MPH than driving at 18 MPH
2. Convenience stores next to long runway-ish looking streets are too much of a temptation
3. ATC is not interested that a puffy white cloud is watching/following/judging you
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Party life or drug refrences in your posts will work against you in your background investigation for the clearance.
I was curious about this, but I hadn't heard from anyone with actual knowledge...
I wonder more: does TS or above clearance require having or not having certain political opinions?
For example... if you join the EFF or post in opposition to the broadcast flag, 3 strikes, the DMCA, or the NSA's wiretapping program or government secret surveillance programs on a mailing list, or on Twit
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If you admit that you did 'X' , then nobody can use the threat of revealing 'X' to blackmail you. It's the stuff that you keep secret that's the problem.
Re:Do you need a clearance? (Score:4, Informative)
If your technical job requires a TS or above clearance...
ABOVE Top Secret?
Yes... that's a thing.
Damn Extroverts (Score:5, Insightful)
Frankly, any company that expects any given hire to have an extensive record of blog posts and tweets is not one I would really want to work for.
Not just because of the privacy implications, but because, in my view, that's expecting me to have a particular kind of personality: one that feels compelled to share everything, or at least a frequent chunk of what I do and think.
Unfortunately, this is just another manifestation of extroverts running most organizations and not even truly comprehending what it might be not to be an extrovert. So much of the hiring process and expectations in the workplace are centered around things that give extroverts a charge, but drain introverts' energy badly.
Just one of my big pet peeves X-P
Dan Aris
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Who signs up to social media and internet forums with their real name?
Apart from you, obviously.
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Who signs up to social media and internet forums with their real name?
Apart from you, obviously.
Me as well. My real name is Ash Vincent.
I guess there are some of us who decided that not being an anonymous coward meant actually having the courage to have anything we post easily associated with our real life identity.
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Sometimes I say things that are unpopular, but I feel they need to be said.
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Who signs up to social media and internet forums with their real name?
Apart from you, obviously.
Well, first of all, 99% of people who aren't geeks. That is, after all, the point of social media for most people: to interact with other real people through the internet, many of whom they already know from real life, and who would be searching for them by their real name.
Second of all, how do you know this is my real name, and not just a plausible pseudonym (as opposed to the obvious online handles most people use, like AmiMoJo)? ;-)
Dan Aris
Re:Damn Extroverts (Score:4, Insightful)
You stopped just short of where I was hoping you would go - Narcissism [sciencedaily.com].
Facebook offers the chance to seek approval and validation [dailymail.co.uk], as well as feedback to alter your behavior - the link refers to this as "curating" your online presence. If you do curating that steps over into reputation management, you can look like you're trying to hide something instead of show something.
LinkedIn and similar sites about careers and such are still social media, but they are more about professional networking to increase the chances of you knowing the right people for a job change. Almost goes without saying these sites are not helpful when you are new to a career, unless you know key people, in which case you're already set.
The specific personality they want may be a narcissistic extrovert, who would do well in banking and finance, or as a CxO. Perhaps they are looking for sociopathic tendencies, because they tend to rise to the top [emeraldinsight.com]. Or maybe they know better.
It's not just about introversion/extroversion - there is a huge amount of insight that a person will get in how you choose to express yourself, maybe not to the point of individual personality disorders, but just a gut feeling that someone is a little too this or that.
I have a tendency to detect flaws in logical arguments, or basic failure to reason, and it drives me nutso. I have posted many a tirade here pointing out those flaws, even when I agree with the premise. Sometimes people correct me, and I learn. I post mostly anonymously so I can float some trial balloons from time to time and see what gets shot down. My online presence is finding and pointing out flaws, or arguing the other side so that people can either see their own flawed rationalization or actually strengthen their argument. My job involves finding problems with requirements, design, or architecture, and being able to argue that point, so now that I've considered it for the first time, I see it as a natural extension.
Silence speaks volumes (Score:4, Insightful)
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Sure... you will be strong against being an APT target; if you aren't broadcasting your role in the company, for chinese hackers to create targeted e-mail campaigns against you.
Online presence is a self-marketing tool (Score:3, Insightful)
There are two choices for online presence that makes sense to me:
- avoid it completely
or
- use it only as a self-marketing tool. Only blog/tweet about technical stuff, no politics, current affairs, funny pictures. Only use social networks that bring value to you. I use LinkedIn, but it might be not useful for everyone. Always assume that whatever you put there is public, even if it says "private". Ignore trolls. Praise other projects freely, but be reluctant to post negative opinions. In general, be constructive.
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I have never been asked about make believe (Score:4, Funny)
I'd say yes (Score:2)
You WILL be Googled. So I'd recommend at least having _some_ online presence. At least LinkedIn, which for technical people is pretty much a CV of what you have been doing over the past few years.
Not having a Facebook and such is actually a plus in my eyes.
You're better off without them. (Score:5, Interesting)
Honestly, you're better off without an online presence. Unless the company is looking to hire a full time blogger, if they do an internet search at all, it will only be to find out if there's any reason why they shouldn't hire you.
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Depends what you have to say about yourself (Score:2)
Should I start now, or is an first-time tweeter/blogger in 2013 worse than someone with no presence at all?
When you begin blogging / posting is fairly irrelevant, but someone posting when they have nothing to say is definitely worse than having no online presence.
I'm in a similar situation. I'm in my late 30's, self-employed, and get most of my work (projects and contracts) by networking in the old-fashioned sense - phoning contacts every once in a while, taking people out to lunch, keeping in tough with agents and hiring managers. Lately though, many of the people I maintain relationships with in this way are i
No. Nobody cares (Score:5, Insightful)
Nobody's going to even look. All we care about is can you do the job. The only exception is if the job is in marketing, then they may care about your use of social media.
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An exception is if you have a website where you show some of your projects. It can work as a portfolio.
But yes, if we are talking about some silly social media profiles or blogs, don't bother writing some dummy content, if you aren't passionate about that kind of media otherwise.
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The answer is... it depends (Score:5, Informative)
.
An exception would be if the applicant links to his professional online presence in the CV. Then I would use that as I would any other information on the CV. However the presence on the web does not make the information different than having the same information on the CV.
If I were hiring for a sensitive position where a background check is warranted, then I would do a real background check.
But if no background check is required, why go poking around in someone's private life.
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She did get an interview but the cards were already on the table. Needless to say she didnt get the job - The moral of that one - have a sensible email address when you are applying for jobs ! If you have an "interesting" home life , keep it seperate from your work life.
Why on earth was it a problem for you/others doing the hiring? You said you were hiring her as a developer... if it was for a web developer job, I would've been more interested in the code of the website rather than the content.
If a potential hire for my team has a personal site about drugs, kinky sex, fascination with fecal matter, or any other 'out of the ordinary' behaviour, it doesn't bother me in the slightest as long as it doesn't affect their work (e.g. a blog that talks about how they like to get s
A few tips (Score:5, Interesting)
* First and foremost: do not pad your CV with things you barely know just to qualify. It's one thing if you used both MS SQL Server and MySQL interchangeably in your past employment but if you used exclusively SQL Server for the past 3 jobs and the requirement is "experience with MySQL" do not apply. Including "experience with MySQL" to trigger the keywords will be an indicator of desperation and lack of professionalism
* About the original question (online presence): it is detrimental unless you are world renowed in your field. Bruce Schneier can point to his online body of work but if yours consists only in presence in Facebook groups, an occasional post on some majordomo list for your pet language or, heavens forbid, a Linkedin account just ommit it. It won't get read and if it does, more likely than not it will show a side of you that would be better hidden.
* The only valuable online presence is a portfolio. Websites you were part of the development team if you area applying for a web developer position, website for the product or service you helped to create, anything that can prove the quality of your work and your qualifications.
* Last but not least important: hiring in this field is mostly about word of mouth and references. The first thing many companies do when trying to find someone qualified is to ask the current employees "do you know someone you can vouch for this position?" That is the surest way to get to the shortlist, to have someone to vouch for you by name.
Last, a little rant. Lucky for us Slashdot got bought by Dice so most of the "infomercials" are in form of people getting and giving advice about employment. Imagine if they had been bought by Sony or Microsoft, it would be a lot like when "jumptheshark.com" got bought by TV Guide only to be dismantled and destroyed.
Same here (Score:2)
I considered the same thing a few months ago then backed off to rethink what I was trying to accomplish. Mainly because of the fear of screwing up, if you do mess up somehow there's no way back. That's obviously bad for a teenager in high school, it's in another league for a professional trying to advance his career.
What I realized was that creating a presence isn't necessarily an all-or-nothing affair. It's simply ranking by what could get out of hand. Meaning that on a scale of 1-10, Linkedin is targe
Slightly Off Topic, But A Worse Situation (Score:5, Interesting)
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Add a middle initial to your name on the resume.
After you've gone through an interview, in your follow-up/thank you email, mention that in a postscript.
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Does the other guy have a website? If so, create your own simple page with your CV, and put a note near the top "Looking for K. Ackle of Loudmouthville, TX? Click here [goatse.cx]."
Having it helps, not having it doesn't hurt (Score:5, Insightful)
I work for a well-known technical company with tons of both open-source contributions and projects we've open-sourced ourselves; we have a techblog, and a presence in many conferences.
When we look at someone technical, we see if they have a presence online. That doesn't mean Twitter or Facebook -- we really don't care about them unless they're public and inappropriate -- but contributions to OSS, technical blog posts, talks, etc. If it's there, it may make us somewhat more interested.
That said, I have a few engineers working for me who are similarly Google-invisible, and who have no interest in creating OSS, speaking at conferences, or writing blog posts. That's not a problem. They weren't penalized when we interviewed them, and they're not penalized now.
I suspect that a company, given the choice between a famous engineer and a non-famous engineer who are equally qualified, may be biased to hire the famous engineer (in my company, we'd just hire both), so I suspect it's an informal edge, not an explicit expectation (most of the time).
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It's possibly a little late to be cagey about which well-known tech company you work for, as their identity is clearly visible in your posting history.
Which perhaps has a bit of a lesson to teach about managing online identities...
have a degree does not all ways helps in IT (Score:2)
have a degree does not all ways helps in IT and CS is not IT Not helpdesk / desktop NOT sys admin and so on.
It doesn't matter at all. (Score:2)
As a new engineer, my lack of online presence didn't matter to the company that just hired me. I've always made a point of trying to obfuscate whatever I do, and that hasn't seemed to bother anyone I've ever applied to. I have yet to even get any requests for 'social media sites I use' or anything of that nature.
If anything they'd check a 'professional networking site' like Linked-In, but that'd be about it.
So, no it doesn't matter, and stay away from companies where it does. The last thing we need is fo
Join and contribute to mailing lists (Score:2)
I'm a zOS Systems Programmer and one of my most used resources is the IBM-MAIN mailing list. If you can find one in your field that you can contribute to, your name will become a searchable item.
As a Technical Interviewer... (Score:2)
I pay scant attention to resumes, except as a starting point and a way to see if you can string words together in a syntactically correct manner. Not having an online presence won't hurt you necessarily. After the receiving a resume the first thing I'll do is to google you to see if you have:
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If you're in it purely for the money you're in it for purely the wrong reason.
If I was in it purely for the money, I would have gotten my securities license or gone to law school to become a certified professional asshole instead of a software developer. I do enjoy doing the work but I don't go around gushing emotional about how great my fucking job is. What I cannot stand is all of the patronizing bullshit from management as they try to turn work into a game and offer "non monetary" rewards for overtime spent working on their projects. We aren't children we're adults and it would be
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This is why I look for recommendations and blog posts. I'm in the same boat that you're in, which is that my best code is proprietary. The solutions is to have others recommend your work and by writing about the things you learn. By this I don't mean that you post specifics about your code as it is the implementation of the concept or technique you have learned (not to mention posting chunks of proprietary code will get you fired or
Getting a job at NSA ? (Score:2)
It's a screen, not a selector (Score:2)
For software developers (Score:2)
For the last round of hiring my company did, it was strongly suggested that any applicants open a Github account so they can use it to save the code they wrote for our evaluation. Having a Github account can give software-oriented people a chance to publish any projects they've written, akin to a portfolio for graphics design artists.
Required: Facebook page, and friend the corp. page (Score:2)
At a previous job, my employer required all employees to have a page on Facebook and we were all supposed to "friend" the company's corporate page. I told them "Fire me if you like, I refuse to join Facebook." Worked there for quite a while, and never got called out on it. I did, however, have to list any on-line communities I was part of in my "Disclosure and Background Check Release" to get my security clearances. They told me I had to stop posting in the sci-fi discussion group I was a member of. While
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If I told you, I'd have to ki&/@.;
n o c a r r i e r
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One they don't use online or is common enough that the signal gets lost in the noise. I'm fortunate to have both scenarios working for me, so even if you discover what my real name is, I don't show up in the first ten pages of search results.