Applying for jobs raises the distinct possibility that a potential employer may Google me (ie. search for my name). Because I’ve had an internet presence since the early 1990’s, I pop up all over the place.
So I’ve had cause to think whether, with Google now a part of the interviewing process, I should consider tweaking my site, or even taking it down altogether, because of the potentially negative reaction it might engender (How would you feel with comments from your early university life coming back to “haunt” you?). I’ve done it myself, but when broaching the subject with candidates have usually found some comparable opinions and reasons behind the site, and been generally left with a better impression of the candidate than I might otherwise have had. I suppose my discomfort is in people, specifically interviewers, potentially drawing the “wrong” or “inappropriate” conclusions about me, from what I have written. That is, they somehow perceive me in a particular way that I’m not in control of and cannot address. I’ve been writing online here over the course of four years, and there are bound to be things I don’t necessarily still agree with any more. Check some of the other services, and you’ll find comments by me going back to 1993 (I’ll leave that as an exercise for the reader!), which leave me positively squirmy in the light of 12 years.
It’s entirely likely that something I have written may simply be against their personal beliefs, politics or opinions. Such things don’t normally (or appropriately, for that matter) come up in job interviews: It’s the abilities of the candidate that are paramount, not their personal beliefs or opinions. But with a website like this, all of these things (and more) are available, and the thorough interviewer will probably have a look about. They might even read this article.
What I hope they don’t do is decide that, because they might disagree with me on something (such as fox hunting or the Iraq war, to take two decisive and emotive issues) that I am in some way inappropriate for consideration. There’s a distinct possibility of that, but I’d hope they’d draw better conclusions that, above all, I care about things, and I’m prepared to go out of my way to make my opinions known to those that are interested in them, rather than just let things blow over. All too often, I’ve encountered people who are just prepared to sit back and let the de facto state of affairs continue. I’m not like that, and this website hopefully demonstrates that. A System Administrator/DBA (which is what I do) needs to be proactive you see, and that’s a part of my personality.
Another, but related matter, is that I’ve co-authored a book, a technical one at that, and one directly related to the career I’m pursuing, and that invokes a curious reaction in people. There are people who are impressed: they shouldn’t be, my contributions aren’t substantial, and took only a couple of weeks; then there are people that aren’t, which is probably for the best. Both of these can lead to inappropriate conclusions. Somehow by co-authoring a book I’m perceived as “overqualified” or possibly intimidating (”He must be some sort of uber-dba to have co-authored a book, that or some sort of relational evangelist”). Hopefully an interview would put that to ground that I’m neither. In fact, I’m a pragmatist when it comes to relational databases, although I do think it’s important people understand the principles and risks, before they start breaching them.
So I’ve taken the decision to leave this website up, warts and all, in the trusted hope that it will not get in the way of any future career opportunity. I mention my book on my CV, right at the end. By wearing my heart on my sleeve in such a way, I trust that people treat it as just one part of who I am, and that my CV is enough to merit an interview. By all means draw conclusions about me from the website, but if what you read here actively gets in the way of forming an objective decision about my technical skills and appropriateness for a role - to be frank - it’s probably in both our interests for you to throw my application away now.
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April 20th, 2005 at 3:39 pm
Hope that you get the job you want,
Richard. I wouldn’t worry too much about people drawing the wrong impressions from the Net. Those sort of people would do the same from an application form or an interview.