Just as we Google former boyfriends or girlfriends, colleagues and even ourselves, employers are no exception.
In fact, a number of surveys are showing an increase in employers and recruiters using search engines and scouring social networking sites to glean information on job candidates.
What's more, 35 of 100 executives recruiters said they have eliminated a candidate from consideration based on information found online last year, up from 26 percent in 2005, according to a survey by ExecuNet, an executive search firm.
With more people, particularly young folks, posting intimate information and photos online, employers and job seekers increasingly are facing an interesting dilemma.
Should information found on the Internet disqualify a potentially promising candidate?
That's exactly the question the Harvard Business Review, in its June issue, asks in a fictional case study.
Chief Executive Officer Fred Weston plans to expand retail chain Hathaway Jones into China. Weston stumbles upon Mimi Brewster, daughter of Weston's old roommate from prep school. Brewster seems to possess everything Weston would want as an employee to lead the Asian expansion plans.
She had grown up in China, spoke both Mandarin and a local dialect and earned an MBA from Stanford University. Her professional experience included working for the largest clothing, shoes and accessories company in the United States.
Then Hathaway Jones' vice president of human resources finds some tidbits in a Google search of Brewster that raises concern.
The search pulled up an article identifying Brewster as a leader of a protest group that helped mobilize campaigns against the World Trade Organization, and another story featuring a photo of Brewster outside China's San Francisco consulate protesting China's treatment of a dissident journalist.
The HR executive suggests the company back off before getting too involved. Weston isn't too sure. After all, it's easy to find online information - good and bad - on anyone these days.
What should he do?
As part of the case study, four experts offer their perspective and advice on this issue. I won't go into what everyone says, but the opinions were evenly split on whether to hire Brewster.
Michael Fertik, founder and chief executive of ReputationDefender, a California firm that works to get unwanted online entries corrected or removed for clients, says Brewster would present a risk to Hathaway Jones.
"The lesson to be learned from her experiences - and it is a lesson for CEOs as well as for job candidates - is that you need to know what is being said about you online," Fertik writes.
On the other hand, Danah M. Boyd, a doctoral candidate at the University of California, contends young people are doing what generations have done before them: Figuring out who they are. Except that this self-discovery is taking place online.
"Many young people have a questionable online presence. If Hathaway Jones doesn't want to hire these people, it'll miss out on the best minds of my generation. Bright people push the edge, but what constitutes the edge is time-dependent," she writes.
"It's no longer about miniskirts or rock 'n' roll; it's about having a complex digital presence."
What would you do if you were Weston?
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