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Don’t forget to Google yourself before the interview

You’ve researched the company, labored over the best "hire me" outfit and perfected your argument as to why the manager absolutely must employ you.

But there’s one more move that if forsaken could hurt your chances of nabbing that position.

You never Googled yourself.

"You want to see how easy it is for an employer to find out more about you," said Mary Flaherty, Roberts Wesleyan College’s career services director.

"References will say glowing things about you," she added. "But Google is a free way for employers to do even more background checking on someone."

Recent college graduates might be especially vulnerable, given their love of social networking sites, blogs and crazier lifestyles.

Take this warning from Arnie Boldt, a managing partner at the Penfield career consulting firm Arnold-Smith Associates.


"We’ve heard that private companies are recruiting college students and paying them money to go on Myspace.com and search for information about individual applicants for jobs," said Boldt, who heard such information from clients.

"If they come up with anything derogatory or unflattering, the company might use that information to make decisions about whether to hire people," he added.

Although several local college career counselors said they don’t know of specific graduates burned by the Internet, they have begun to warn their students.

They’ve shared stories or articles on such technological pitfalls on their Web sites or during job hunting seminars.

"They need to stop thinking like a college student and more like a young professional," said Michael Kahl, Nazareth’s career services director.

And we’re not just talking about banishing the spring break photos of you chugging beer from your blog/social networking profile/personal Web site.

You want to do an "informational audit of your technology-based personality," added Jerry Wrubel, career services director at the State University College at Geneseo.

So look at what shows up about you on others’ Web sites.

Hopefully polite requests to remove questionable material will suffice.

Watch your negative comments on blogs — recruiters might see such thoughts as a reflection of your personality.

Don’t forget your voice mail message and e-mail address, which should be something innocuous — not ilovetheyankees, Wrubel said.

And if you can’t do anything about unflattering online material, at least be prepared to deal with such an inquiry during the interview, added Flaherty of Roberts Wesleyan.

Say whatever you did was part of the college climate and that you’re ready to be a professional.

Maybe back it up by saying that despite your partying you still made it into your internship at 8 a.m.

But it’s not just students who need to watch their Internet activity. The danger is there whether you’re a newbie or old-timer in the work force.

Three in four executive recruiters, for example, said in a national survey that they use search engines to learn more about candidates.

Another third of recruiters have eliminated a candidate based on what they’ve uncovered online, said the survey by ExecuNet, a national career/networking organization.

"If you Google yourself and find negative information, you can only combat it by going and putting something positive out there," Boldt added.

"If they Google you, (then) they’ll find your online portfolio with the positive information before the negative stuff. It’s a strategy that might work."