I'm in the depths of recruitment hell, trying to replace someone who decided not to return from maternity leave. I've been through very many wrong candidates who don't even meet the minimum requirements.
I am about to interview someone who has zero google hits. This person is in their 30s, lives in the US, went to American universities. Has had multiple jobs in my industry. Very unusual name. There are zero results for the name as spelled, and two non-results for an alternate spelling of the first name (by non results I mean "list of people with the last name xyz" is one of the results). This person is finishin a graduate degree--but has no linkedin page, no references on the university site, nothing at all.
How weird is that?
Maybe they've just gone incognito on everything because they're interviewing? Would not surprise me.
Apparently you aren't supposed to use what you fine on google as a basis for hiring anyway. If you let him know you googled him pre-interview it could be bad.
I don't think it's necessarily a bad sign, but I'd keep your eyes open when interviewing him.
I once worked with a guy like Ron Swanson. He was the only guy at the company getting a paper paycheck because he didn't carry a debit card (I don't even know if he had a credit card) out of fear of identity theft, and he had no social media accounts. He was very nice and good at his job, and by all accounts he wasn't any kind of crackpot - he just kept to himself.
Post by downtoearth on Mar 4, 2015 16:54:14 GMT -5
LinkedIn is not really used by most of my coworkers 35 and under. They find it passé and network on twitter and such - where you can be very anonymous or obvious if you want.
Oh and my DH could have easily done this and still can. He's not really ever found on the internet. He is even in a lot of pictures on the internet if you want to try and find him, but you can't search by his name. I know 2 women who have done the same - they don't exist on the casual internet (well except for actual publications in peer-reviewed periodicals, but you wouldn't easily find them without adding some key words about their research).
Post by UMaineTeach on Mar 4, 2015 16:59:40 GMT -5
There is nothing relevant to be when you search my name. You used to be able to get a couple hits by going directly to the university's site, but not anymore. it's been so long.
Well on the bright side, your organization will likely never have to terminate them for bad internet behavior (and never become gif fodder here - mostly by me).
LinkedIn is not really used by most of my coworkers 35 and under. They find it passé and network on twitter and such - where you can be very anonymous or obvious if you want.
Oh and my DH could have easily done this and still can. He's not really ever found on the internet. He is even in a lot of pictures on the internet if you want to try and find him, but you can't search by his name. I know 2 women who have done the same - they don't exist on the casual internet (well except for actual publications in peer-reviewed periodicals, but you wouldn't easily find them without adding some key words about their research).
My husband isn't google-able because of his last name. I wish! I have a unique name. You can still find stuff I wrote for my college paper on page 2 or 3 of google.
Post by alleinesein on Mar 4, 2015 17:12:19 GMT -5
Not weird. Im pretty ungoogleable unless you know exactly what phrase to use to find me. Since XH was stalking me online I no longer have my full name on my FB account and the email that is linked to it is not the same one I use in my job hunt. If any potential employers do google my name they will think that I am some super fit blonde girl who does marathons and triathlons and lives outside of Detroit.
I thought I was good with my unique name, but one day I googled myself a few months before I started job searching. I found a realtor with my current name (not bad), and a person arrested for financial fraud with a name similar to my maiden name. As an accounting student, I was very quick to put up a profile pic on LinkedIn that clearly showed I was not the same person showing in the mugshot!
Maybe they go mostly by a nickname or alternate name like their middle name. Have you tried googling their last name?
This. And also if they are recently married or divorced, perhaps they have not updated social media accounts to match the name on the resume.
Or they use some other name on social media -- I see a lot of First Name Middle Name (instead of First Name Last Name) on Facebook , even in the younger crowd.
Another explanation is that the person is just a stickler for privacy, and really doesn't like social media. And LinkedIn is annoying and kind of a crappy service, particular because it's privacy protections are the worst.
Maybe they go mostly by a nickname or alternate name like their middle name. Have you tried googling their last name?
This. And also if they are recently married or divorced, perhaps they have not updated social media accounts to match the name on the resume.
Or they use some other name on social media -- I see a lot of First Name Middle Name (instead of First Name Last Name) on Facebook , even in the younger crowd.
Another explanation is that the person is just a stickler for privacy, and really doesn't like social media. And LinkedIn is annoying and kind of a crappy service, particular because it's privacy protections are the worst.
Is this a new thing? I've had like four FB friends change their names from First Last to First Middle in the past month or so. They are not young....
Yeah I'm thinking maybe they've recently changed their name. I just was shocked when Google said "there are no results." That so rarely happens when you google anything!
I have a relatively unique name, but I have the main gmail address for get name it seems. I've gotten car insurance documents for a woman in Germany, travel agent info for a woman in France trying to book a vacation home in Spain and a Canadian woman who was setting up a wedding registry. I also get emails for a man with a similar name from GOES and I've done everything I can to make it stop but DHS does not seem to care that their highly secure trusted traveler program is spamming me with someone else's data. And just yesterday someone in Brazil looped me in on their university study group complete with scans from some Portuguese anthropology texts.
This is exactly me! I am constantly getting emails for other people with my name who apparently don't understand how email works. I get flight confirmations and all kinds of stuff. Someone with my name is a nurse in Brazil because I'm constantly getting nursing-related stuff in Portuguese. Then there was that time someone booked a flight from Rwanda to JFK with my name AND all my personal information. I called ICE but I have no idea what happened after that.
I am a pretty private person. I have a Facebook profile that I don't use. I have Linkedin but never had a picture there till recently (and have very few contacts compared to most people). I don't post anywhere using my real name. I just googled myself and anything that is public record comes up. Anytime I've had a utility registered in my name, that address comes up. What I paid for my condo. People I'm related to. Granted, someone doing a search wouldn't necessarily be able to link me to any of this, but I know the information is accurate. And any race I've ever run - that's out there too.
So as someone who is generally pretty much absent from social media, I guess yeah, it is a little weird that there are zero results with this person's name.
I searched my name today on a site that popped up and it showed an aerial view of my house. Creepy. Logically I know it is just pulling from the tax records and popping it into a map, but still creepy nonetheless.