Why Google might be killing your job search

Abridged from USNews.com for The Career News Volume 8 Issue 41 (October 2008)

Columnist Anita Bruzzese solicits advice on managing your online reputation.

"I had a client who had a reputation as a hard-nosed manager. After losing his position after an acquisition, he found himself in a job search for the first time in a number of years. Because he was highly respected, he thought the search would go quickly. On several occasions, he would get to the final stages prior to hiring with a company showing great enthusiasm, only to suddenly be dropped from consideration. At this point he came to see me. We did a Google search and found that when we searched his name, No. 5 in the Google search results was a link to an industry forum page where he was being trashed anonymously by some people that had worked for him, calling him an unfit manager. Here's what we did. We changed everything (resumé, cover letters, online profiles, etc.) to his full name. People will typically Google what is on the resumé. When his full name was Googled, nothing negative showed up. We took advantage of a few key online profiles like LinkedIn. Google loves it and for most people, if they have a LinkedIn profile, it will show up first if you Google them. I also had my client write a book review on his favorite management book and post it on Amazon. This gave the opportunity to show a little thought leadership and demonstrate his management knowledge. This helped counter the negatives. The result was that within weeks Joshua was hired."

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