Have you Googled yourself recently? Nearly 100 million names are Googled every day.
Because of all that searching, monitoring your online reputation via Defensive Googling is not optional today!
Being inappropriately visible in search results can be very damaging to your job search, your career, and even your social life.
Employers are recruiters are not the only ones researching job candidates.
What do you do when you are considering working with someone or meeting them socially? You Google them! People research those they have met — or are meeting — for business or socially.
Employers and Recruiters Research Job Candidates
Making a “bad hire” can be career suicide for the recruiter, HR, and the hiring manager, so they research candidates they are considering to learn as much as they can.
Even when you are employed, your employer may also Google you and other employees. Having an employee post something nasty in social media can be embarrassing and cause the employer to lose business or be publicly humiliated, which they want to avoid.
A 2018 CareerBuilder survey revealed that:
- 47% of employers have rejected applicants because they could not find any online visibility associated with the applicant’s name.
- 48% of employers Google their current employees (10% do it daily).
- 70% of employers research job applicants via social networks.
However, only 30% of job seekers worry about their online reputations. BIG MISTAKE!
You must know who and what is found when your name is Googled (or Binged, etc.)
The actions of someone else – who has the same name you have – could be sabotaging your job search.
Recruiters who Google the name you put on their application or in your resume will be unaware that the “bad” person Google showed them is not you. Result: opportunity lost! Perhaps, many opportunities…
Mistaken Online Identity Is a Major Issue – Defensive Googling Is the Solution
Since the best defense is a good offense, find out what is available online related to your name. If you don’t know about a problem, you won’t be able to address it. When you do know that someone else has the same name, you can differentiate yourself from the individual(s) with the problem.
You need to use one version of your name consistently for your job search and career. I call that your computer “screen name.” Your name is one of the most important keywords for your job search — critical for your personal online reputation management and personal SEO.
[MORE: Your Most Important Keywords.]
1. Search Google (and Bing and DuckDuckGo) for the name(s) you have been using in your resumes, job applications, and other job search documents.
You need to know if someone who has the same name you have is causing you a problem in your job search to avoid using that version of your name.
To search –
Type the name you usually use on your resume into a Google (or Bing) search bar with quotation marks around it, like this:
“Robert Smith”
Enclosing your name within quotation marks tells Google and Bing that you want those words in a phrase, side-by-side. Otherwise, the search engines will show you results where those two words appear anywhere on the same web page, regardless of how far apart or unrelated in context.
If you typically include your middle initial, middle name, or some other configuration, search for that version of your name, too.
NOTE: Use an “Incognito” or “Private” version of the browser for the best results because it ignores all of your previous search history, showing you what most people see when they do the search. If you are using Chrome as your browser, click on the 3 dots in the top right side of the browser and choose “New incognito window.” Then, type your search into the search bar as usual. All browsers offer you this ability.
[MORE: Case Study: How One Guy Named Bob Almost Ruined Another Bob’s Job Search.]
2. Carefully study the first two to five pages of search results.
Look for anything negative that an employer would see associated with your name (even if it is NOT about you).
This could include photos and videos as well as standard web pages, blog posts, comments on blog posts, news items, public records (like court dockets), and other information readily available online.
If you find something inappropriate associated with your name – something that would make an employer put your resume in the “reject” pile rather than the “possible” pile – you have a potential problem.
The problem could be someone with your name who has been arrested for drunk driving, posted inappropriate photos of themselves in social media, been accused of being a tax cheat, contributed racist, sexist, or other nasty “*ist” comments on blogs, or hundreds of other things.
If that entry is on the 8th page, and moving down toward the 9th, it may not be a big issue. But if it is on the first page or the second page, pay close attention. Monitor that entry. You need to find a version of your name without something bad associated with it.
3. Continue to search using different variations of your name until you find a “undamaged” version or a version that is undamaged in your location.
A clean version of your name does not have anything negative – from anyone – associated with it, but it is still your real name. Check all the versions of your name you can think of – with your middle name or middle initial, etc.
My favorite example of smart name usage is the famous actor, James Earl Jones. There are probably very many people named “Jim Jones” in the world, and one is definitely infamous. But James Earl Jones is distinctive!
He could have called himself “JJ,” “Jim Jones,” “Jimmy Jones,” “James Jones,” or even ”James E. Jones.” But there is no confusing him with anyone else now. He claimed a clean version of his name, and made it famous.
4. Claim that version of your name with LinkedIn.
The best place to take ownership of your name is LinkedIn. Recruiters use LinkedIn relentlessly and consistently, making it the perfect place to grab your professional name.
If you must, add (or remove) a middle name or middle initial. A woman can add her maiden or married name. You can also add other identifiers to make your name unique, like a college degree or professional certification.
You are not changing your “legal name” — you are only changing the professional identity you make visible online.
5. Consistently use that version of your name for your job search, work, and career.
Use that professional version of your name, and use it consistently for your job search.
This will enable recruiters and others to connect your job search, career, and business documents to your LinkedIn Profile.
- Resume
- Cover Letters
- Email address
- Email signature
- Business/networking cards
- Job applications
- Meeting badges and name tags
- Online professional visibility (LinkedIn, professional associations, etc.)
- Anything else related to your job search or career
Keep everything “in sync” particularly in relation to your LinkedIn Profile.
6. Set up a Google Alert on all versions of your name, including the “clean” version.
Keep track of what is happening to your clean name in case someone else using that name does something that makes it unusable.
Google Alerts are free and will notify you when something new associated with the name appears in Google search results.
[MORE: Setting Up Google Alerts and 5 Ways to Use Google Alerts for Your Job Search.]
7. Use a different name or identity for other online activities.
If you like to argue online about politics, religion, sports, or some other controversial topic publicly on the Internet (Facebook, NOT LinkedIn), separate the professional you from the you who gets into unprofessional online disagreements by using another name.
Separate your professional identity from your private life to keep your professional reputation as clean as possible. Use a different version of your name, and use a different email address as well when you rant about politics, sports, or religion.
Online Reputation Management Is the New Reality
With those 100 million name searches a day on Google, this is NOT “vanity Googling” or “ego surfing.” This is “defensive Googling” – enlightened 21st century self-defense!
Defensive Googling is just the beginning of an online reputation management program, and it should not be suspended when the job seeker has found a new job. Mistaken online identity is a permanent risk for all of us, unless we have particularly unique names.
The Bottom Line
Being appropriately visible today is a requirement for most careers. Invisibility kills opportunities. So, be appropriately visible and be sure that when someone looks for you, they find the real you. Do not be a victim of mistaken online identity when someone who shares your name misbehaves publicly. Know what is going on for you!
More about Online Reputation Management:
- Guide to Online Reputation Management
- Finding the Best Version of Your Name for Your Job Search
- How Name Confusion Can Make Your Job Search More Difficult
- Your Most Important Keywords
- Guide to Personal SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
- 5 Ways You Look Out of Date in Your Job Search
- Microsoft Privacy Study
About the author…
Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. A veteran of the United States Marine Corps and a recent Visiting Scholar at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. Since 1998, Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt.org. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg and on Facebook, LinkedIn.
More about this author…
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