by Linda Formichelli

What do your online activities say about you to potential employers?

Recently I entered my name into a search engine to see what would turn up - a practice called "ego surfing." Within seconds I was browsing through scholarly letters I'd posted to the Linguist List in 1995, websites whose address books I'd signed, listings for my own web site - and a VERY dirty joke I posted to the Humor List. The Humor List is a moderated, subscription-based e-mail discussion list, but apparently they had posted their archives on the Web. And there was my dirty mind displayed for all the world to see, in the form of a joke titled "Blowing Chunks."

As a freelance writer, I do a lot of business through the Web. What if someone were to look up my name to find my site or to get some idea of who I am before deciding to hire me? Panicked at the thought, I interviewed employers to get the scoop on how your online personality affects your hireability.

Luckily, a good number of employers think the practice of doing background checks on the Web is immoral. "It sounds too much like Big Brother to me," says the director of business development at a microelectronics corporation, who wishes to remain anonymous. "It's a possible means of discrimination. For example, say you like to visit gay porno sites. Your potential employer sees this through monitoring your web activity and may dismiss you as a candidate because they're opposed to hiring homosexuals or anyone with different preferences than theirs, even if their company policy may state otherwise."

Others have no qualms about checking out your Web activities. After all, if you've been active on the Net for more than ten minutes, you know that anything you post is out there for the world to see. Fortunately, most of these employers are more interested in your ability to express yourself than in what kinds of sites you visit. If you're applying for editorial positions, for example, employers will want to see that you participate in industry forums and that you post well thought-out, grammatically correct messages.

"We're interested in modes of expression that people use," says David Fore, a designer who is also in charge of recruiting at Cooper Interactive Designs. "Some designers that apply have their own sites. We don't hold it against them if they don't, but if they do we'll check it out. We don't care who applicants associate with, but we do care about their graphic and design sensibility and their writing ability. If they can express themselves in an intelligent manner, they'll capture our attention." However, Fore doesn't spend all his time turning over cyber-rocks to get the dirt on an applicant. "We never go into newsgroups to check out an applicant's postings. We don't have time for that," he says.

Employers` online sleuthing practices may serve as a bad-employer screening system for you, too. "If an employer is going to be misled by the information you post, you probably don't want to work there anyway, "says Fore.

If you fear your online activities may keep you from getting the job you want, "Maintain a squeaky clean image on the Web," suggests a senior manager at a large consulting firm, who also asked to remain anonymous. "Consider setting up a dummy account for any questionable browsing."

What if you already have a history of posting supportive messages to the KKK or the Sex with Sheep site? There's not much you can do in the way of damage control, but you can start now to cultivate a good online image that will hopefully neutralize your rash postings.

Quick Fixes

Here are employers' top tips on how job applicants can develop a positive online image.

Once you post it, it will haunt you forever. Remember that like the "permanent record" your grammar school teachers threatened you with every time you misbehaved, anything you post to the Internet will follow you for the rest of your life.

Be active in industry forums. Besides keeping you up-to-date in your industry's doings, reading and posting to industry forums and newsgroups will help you impress potential employers.

Pay attention to your grammar and spelling. People use the speed and convenience of e-mail as an excuse for sloppy writing. You may save a few seconds by not proofreading your posts and e-mails, but is a body of work filled with typos and sentence fragments what you want to be known for?

Don't flame. Baiting participants in a news group or discussion list or shooting off fiery e-mails is not the best way to make friends - or impress employers. If you disagree with a post, a well thought-out, logical argument will win more supporters than a thousand-word rant complete with obscenities. Save any flames in your out-box for a few hours to give yourself a chance to cool down before you do something that you'll regret when you're applying for a job.

Don't let your guard down. Heed this advice even when posting to an e-mail discussion group. Though right now only the subscribed members can read your messages, the list owners may later post the list's archives on the Internet - as I learned the hard way.