Ever tried googling yourself - I bet your employers have
I read this article today about a university professor who was investigating people "googling" his name. He talks about how everyone should "Self Google" apart from sounding a bit rude, it is something which I am sure everyone has done. It is an interesting thing to be aware off because I'm sure that most employers will Google your name before interviewing you, so it is worth trying to manage the results.
I suppose it is not something I really think about when writing my blog but the fact is that unless you take the blog down at a later date then the blog is going to be there and your current or new employees could read it. So is there anything on your blog which your employer might not like, is there anything which says anything about the company you work for or the employees there.
I don't think this aspect worries me but it maybe concerning if you were going for an interview and a prospective employee read the blog. A technical (well some might argue) like this one isn't so bad but what if you had a personal weblog expressing political views or extreme views. This might give a potential employer the wrong impression.
The article talks about a good example where someone accused a company of fraud and then in his next job that company was a customer, so it didn't look good when you googled his name and up popped his blog accusing a customer of fraud.
The article does summarise by saying that writing a weblog can help shape your public online image because then when people type your name they will go to your weblog and see the stuff you have written about. So blogs can have a positive effect on googling yourself but you have to remember that these pages will probably be around for a long time. I keep thinking of the Gladiator quote (slightly changed)
"what we blog today, will echo into eternity"
Actually far more embarrassing than employers potential or current reading your blog is your girlfriend or family. My girlfriend likes to refer to my blog as my Nerdy geeky blog.
Anyway Self google yourself and see what pops up.
I suppose it is not something I really think about when writing my blog but the fact is that unless you take the blog down at a later date then the blog is going to be there and your current or new employees could read it. So is there anything on your blog which your employer might not like, is there anything which says anything about the company you work for or the employees there.
I don't think this aspect worries me but it maybe concerning if you were going for an interview and a prospective employee read the blog. A technical (well some might argue) like this one isn't so bad but what if you had a personal weblog expressing political views or extreme views. This might give a potential employer the wrong impression.
The article talks about a good example where someone accused a company of fraud and then in his next job that company was a customer, so it didn't look good when you googled his name and up popped his blog accusing a customer of fraud.
The article does summarise by saying that writing a weblog can help shape your public online image because then when people type your name they will go to your weblog and see the stuff you have written about. So blogs can have a positive effect on googling yourself but you have to remember that these pages will probably be around for a long time. I keep thinking of the Gladiator quote (slightly changed)
"what we blog today, will echo into eternity"
Actually far more embarrassing than employers potential or current reading your blog is your girlfriend or family. My girlfriend likes to refer to my blog as my Nerdy geeky blog.
Anyway Self google yourself and see what pops up.
posted by The Hosk at
9:25 am
3 Comments:
The usual term for this activity is "egosurfing" (with various punctuation variants). Wired magazine published the word in their March 1995 "Jargon Watch" column.
By 1997, the word was so well-established that other terms ("idsurfing") ("reverse ego-surfing") were being derived from it.
By
Doug, at Thu Sept 28, 04:55:00 pm 2006
what a great name for it, although I imagine peoples name appear a lot more on the internet these days with all the things people have signed up for and comments on other peoples blogs etc.
By
The Hosk, at Thu Sept 28, 05:06:00 pm 2006
http://xkcd.com/c137.html
By
Anonymous, at Fri Sept 29, 03:52:00 pm 2006
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