Do You Google The People Who Interview You?

Your Two Cents: Do You Google the People Who Interview You?

May 30, 2008

It's fair to assume that a potential employer will Google search your name before offering you a job. They've heard about your great accomplishments and how qualified you think you are for the job, and they want to see if there's any dirt you're hiding that says something else about your character.

With the knowledge that an employer will be poking around the Internet for you-news, have you done a reverse Google? And I don't mean just looking up the person's profile on the company's website.

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18 Comments

aimeeb 4 years 50 weeks

I have.

JaimeLeah526 4 years 50 weeks

I hadn't thought of that before but it's a great idea.

MindayH 4 years 50 weeks

I would. Cause I do it for people who interview with us. Plus check 'em out on on facebook, myspace, linkedin - whatever I can!

mirawilliams 4 years 50 weeks

Of course. I do it all the time. I work online, they work online - I know they've googled me. I look at it as research. I don't read their private information (I've found the people who work online tend not to have overly revealing information available), but I do read up on their associations, awards and general recognition in the industry. They're interviewing me to see if I'll fit in their company, I'm researching them to see if I want to work for them. Besides, it's like journalism - you research your subject before you interview them. A job interview does work both ways.

bingkaycoy 4 years 50 weeks

Yes I do. I want to have an idea of who he is so I can properly address him during the interview and of course how to direct my answers with regards to his position.

carhornsinapril 4 years 50 weeks

yes, always. as for me, i have a super common last name, so my stuff only pops up a couple of times when you google my name, and it's all work related.

shanimalcracker 4 years 50 weeks

P.S. Personal anecdote: my last year of college, I interviewed for a lawyer who also ran a real estate practice. He seemed cool and nice, although a little eccentric, and was offering good compensation. I googled him and found out that he had been disbarred at one point for some sort of conduct issues. Suffice to say, I didn't accept the job offer AND I realized the importance of knowing who you're working for.

Knight Who Says Ni 4 years 50 weeks

I google everything. Why not? You're not disrespecting anyone's privacy by doing so. I do think it's really important to research the company and people for whom you'd be working. You don't need to know where they LIVE or anything, but some information is good. And Google is the first step for research anyway.

kcwebgirl 4 years 50 weeks

i agree with chicobo, you have to exploit anything that will give you an edge. but i've never thought of googling my interviewers and i will from now on. i do monitor my results heavily and get annoyed by some of the things that come up. i'm a writer and a lot of my published stories are all over the web, whether i wanted them to be or not. annoying!

chicobo 4 years 50 weeks

I definitely do. It makes a difference that you can maybe fill some uneasy silences with some good conversation about something the other person may have as a hobby. Of course there's a difference between being dishonest (GOD I LOVE CATERPILLAR WATCHING) and being a good Googler (yes, I am a Sugar cult follower, YOU TOO?). Anything to give you that edge. How much do you really want [the job]?

verily 4 years 50 weeks

On one hand, I think googling people you personally know is kind of tacky. I wouldn't have even thought of googling my interviewers for my current job and both of them wound up being my manager at some point. I really don't care what they do in their spare time... On the other hand, I can see how looking up information if you're in a business where accomplishments matter, such as the entertainment industry, can be helpful to making career decisions. Having someone google me still bugs me. It makes me glad that I've worked hard to erase my name from the web (except for one or two naive posts when I was younger). No one needs to know how much time I spend posting on random blogs. Or what silly things I posted in a public forum when I was 17.

shanimalcracker 4 years 50 weeks

Yes, I have Googled before, but more likely I would Google the company and not as much the interviewers.

murdock99tx 4 years 50 weeks

Totally agree w/firedancyr7; I would expect a legit business to have Web presence! In other news: I love the outfit of the gal in the photo, including the cool shoes.

hotstuff 4 years 50 weeks

Nope, I've never cared to learn about an interviewer. It never even crossed my mind. I think you have to be super nosey to do this.

firedancyr7 4 years 50 weeks

I didn't used to but recently I was contacted by a recruiting agency and after meeting with them and getting that "uneasy" feeling I Googled them. I could find nothing, nothing in the Better Business Bureau, nothing... I found this to be odd. Any company should have SOMETHING on the web somewhere. But I'm glad I went through the motions because there were several things that made me think it wasn't nearly as reputable a company as they wanted you to believe - the Google search was the final straw. I'm not sure that turning up nothing in a Google search is worse than turning up negative information but in my eyes it seemed that way. Am I wrong?

lizs 4 years 50 weeks

Most of my current co-workers have no presence, which almost made me turn down the [web design] job. They googled me and used info that they found to start conversations during my first few weeks - I think that is gauche, not to mention kind of creepy.

JenBrett 4 years 50 weeks

not Google so much as look them up on IMDB. That way I know when my producer is green

bellaressa 4 years 50 weeks

I never thought about this; however, I have goggled myself just to see what I could find. I am not on any searches but there are people with the same name who have done very public ally cool things. I may try this.

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