Question about employers doing a background search (employment, felony, average)
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When employers are doing a background search and they happen to google your name, if they find something bad about you on the first page but it isn't from a news media outlet or anything, more so from a forum or a blog, are they going to look into the forum and blog or are they just going to assume everything they read is true? Will they care to examine the reputation of the forum or blog itself?
If that the reputation of that forum or blog is bad, will they just ignore it?
googling isn't a formal background search. a real background check can contain derogatory info from public records (like bankruptcies, criminal court records) those are the only real ways of finding out about someone. finding out about someone who was arrested thru googling--well what about the disposition of the arrest?
sure an employer can rely on googling but if they choose to believe what they find i doubt they will reveal what they found because its not a good way to check out somebody out.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Googling is often done ahead of an interview by the hiring manager, and such social media sites as Linkedin and Facebook may be checked. Negative information may be used to weed out people or may just be kept in mind, depending on how many other qualified candidates have applied. The actual background checks are normally done by HR only after a decision has been made, either before the offer, or in our case, after the offer as a condition of employment along with the reference calls.
If they find something negative are they going to bother to look into it and see how valid it is? IMO it would be unfair to reject a woman if some misogyny site was shaming her but it isn't about what's fair, it is about what is.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,553 posts, read 81,067,970 times
Reputation: 57723
Again, it depends on who else applies. If someone on paper is head and shoulders above the rest, but had one negative post it might be overlooked,
if many negative posts it might be investigated some. On the other hand if there are plenty of other qualified candidates I doubt that any additional tie would be spent looking into it. Even if the negative posts are not true or deserved, it demonstrates some "baggage" that could affect the person's
performance, or bring bad publicity to the company.
Join a site like meetup.com, join a bunch of groups, and make it so when your name is searched, those searches are pushed down to a second page, if they see you are say, part of a book club, a movie club, etc, they'll probably just think you are some average person with nothing.
When it comes to getting hired, is having a bad reputation on google the equivalent of a felony?
I wrote 2 threads on defamation previously because a friend of mines had a blog post written about her which calls her a man hating feminist and a few other names that aren't so pleasant. The only good thing about all of this is that the post was written by a blog known for being controversial and misogynistic. The bad thing is that it shows up on the 1st page when you google her name and since the blog gets a lot of traffic it is hard to push it down. There are also a couple of posts on forums about her which also show up on the first page.
From what I concluded in the past 2 threads, most employers won't look at the validity of the gossip and will simply accept it as fact if it shows up on the first page of google. With that being said, could you say that having a bad reputation on google is the same as having a felony when it comes to getting a job?
It will indeed hurt her employment prospects. She needs to consult an attourney on this. In my experience any dirt that HR can dig up will cause them to deep 6 a candidate's application without telling them nor offering them a chance to explain. HR isn't big on logical reasoning.
It will indeed hurt her employment prospects. She needs to consult an attourney on this. In my experience any dirt that HR can dig up will cause them to deep 6 a candidate's application without telling them nor offering them a chance to explain. HR isn't big on logical reasoning.
The legal action part is the toughest, defamation law suits take years to build up and cost a lot of money.
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When it comes to getting hired, is having a bad reputation on google the equivalent of a felony?
