By: Katy Caudle, Director of Research
“Always be, never appear to
be”. Sage advice from my mother that elicited groans as a teenager, but
that I can now appreciate fully in the executive search world, where it
is particularly applicable. How you present
yourself should always be the best – but still factually accurate –
version of yourself, and as fact-checkers go, there is none better than
Google. As a hiring manager, Google can be your best friend. It’s an
extremely useful tool to gain a broad picture of a candidate, often
beyond the office.
Though we
provide detailed appraisals of candidates, we assume that the internet
will prove too enticing to our clients, and that they will not be able
to resist a brief internet search on any potential executive. A recent survey shows
that 89% of hiring managers Google candidates and 86% admit that a
positive online reputation influences their hiring decision.
You can assume too that at some point, every executive has “ego-surfed”,
so they know what the internet says about them and what a hiring
manager will find. As an employer, here’s how to use those search
results to separate the ordinary candidate from the extraordinary:
• The candidate’s online persona matches their resume: Congratulations
on finding a candidate who has nothing to hide and is paying attention
to their reputation from all angles. This executive says they personally
won that marketing award, and a quick search doesn’t pull up someone
else’s name. This candidate has likely taken the time to ensure that
their online presentation is a clear and honest representation and that
if anything, it enhances what they have to offer (perhaps they didn’t
list that Top 40 under 40 award on their CV). This will soon be even
easier to do as Google changes their algorithms to promote editable personal page results like Google+.
• There are multiple people with their name: This
is often the case with more common names, but a savvy executive should
have found a way to take ownership of their name and build their “brand”
so they are findable in a Google search. I will be the first to admit
that this can be an uphill battle for an individual, especially when
your name twin is, like mine, a Miss America pageant title holder. (Go
ahead, Google “Katy Caudle”, I’ll wait.) An extraordinary candidate has
done interviews on his or her areas of expertise, held leadership
positions in volunteer organizations, or used social media to their
advantage to make them stand out among all the other guys named John
Schmidt. If all else fails, did they include a middle name, initial, or
maiden name on their CV? Maybe John Schmidt knew his name was
forgettable, but he threw that “Jacob Jingleheimer” into the mix and
suddenly everyone knew his name…
• Something doesn’t quite add up:
Occasionally, an executive will tell us one thing while a basic
internet search reveals another. It doesn’t happen often, but be wary of
the candidate who said he or she was a banking executive in 2007 if a
local news video from that year pops up about them owning a retail
store. Check their resume against their LinkedIn profile; it seems
obvious that they would match, having been created by the same person,
but it is not always so. I once interviewed a candidate who told me her
last position was a three month internship, but her LinkedIn profile
showed she was a short-tenured but very full-time employee of that
company. And occasionally, you might come across a candidate who bends
the truth on basic, easily Google-able facts, like whether they actually
completed that MBA or the weather. A candidate in North Texas told me
he hadn’t been responsive because a nasty storm had flooded his house. A
quick search proved that as I (a fellow Texan) suspected, Amarillo was
just as bone-dry as Houston during the worst drought in decades. As
ahiring manager, an internet search can help fill in the gaps when
something just doesn’t feel right. If nothing else, it provides great
fodder for interview questions.
• You discover something less than savory:
An extraordinary candidate will know it is best to bring the situation
to light before he or she gets too far into the process with you. In the
early 2000s, we had a candidate come highly recommended for a finance
position. Upon calling him, he said he was interested in the role, but
asked that we Google him before taking any further steps. If the client
wasn’t interested after that, he understood. As it turned out, he had
been indicted in the wake of the recent Enron scandal. Our client
couldn’t take on that risk at the time. However, the executive’s poise
and candor up front gave him greater credibility. We’ve contacted him
about other opportunities or referrals in the decade since, knowing that
he will be honest with us and we can speak positively of his character,
despite what it says on the internet. Within reason and the law, it is
okay to ask about something you saw online if it would affect their work
or your organization.
Even if you
suspect that your findings may preclude you from hiring the candidate,
if you have any smidge of doubt, it’s worth asking about in an
interview. Perhaps the local news captured their title incorrectly, or
while that court record online does list your potential executive’s
name, a deeper dive shows they were only called to testify and not under
investigation themselves. Unlike most search results that can be edited
with a change of privacy settings, things like those are much more
difficult to control. And as they say, you can’t believe everything you
read on the internet.