Applying for a new job can be a daunting prospect. Between making sure your CV is in tiptop shape, to preparing yourself for the dreaded interview, it can be easy to forget that we live in an age where people can garner a lot of information about you simply by googling you.
One person took to Reddit to find out some stories from managers who had googled a prospective employee and been shocked by what they found. They asked, ‘Hiring managers of Reddit, what’s your favorite “They were perfect until we Googled them’ story?”
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Managers were more than happy to share their weird and shocking stories, the most bizarre of which have been gathered for you here.
Stole Thousand Of Dollars
“I was interviewing a much older guy for a similar position of mine. Everything seemed okay, and he was our best candidate. Before moving forward, I did a quick google search to only find out that he was fired from his previous job because of stealing $5000 worth of computer equipment.
“My director hired him anyway.” — inspeck
Sounds like that director may have got himself a cut of that stolen computer equipment!
Animal Cruelty
“This kid, early 20s comes in for a job, seemed normal enough. Google him and he was wanted in another state for stabbing a St. Bernard to death.” — washthatdickson
There would be no way that I would want someone who had hurt animals in my workplace, let alone someone who had stabbed one to death!
Photos Of Drugs On Facebook
“Hiring private tutors to work with middle School students. Had a great conversation with a girl, she stressed how much she wants to be a role model for young girls, basically exactly what we were looking for. Then I googled her and the first picture on her Facebook is her doing a line.” — shankliest
Who in their right mind would post a picture of them doing drugs to Facebook? Although, I guess she probably wasn’t in her right mind. Either that or she is just staggeringly dense.
Lying About Dead Children
“I was hiring for our late-night shift and she was willing to work anything and looking for about 25 hours per week. This was absolutely what the company was looking for. She had mentioned that she was ‘grieving her little boy who passed two weeks ago and needed to do something to occupy her time’. She finished her one day of computer training and stopped showing up. Later in the week, she sent me an email stating that she ‘wasn’t ready to come back to work like she’d thought’, which was understandable.
“My assistant manager and I decided to look her up only to find that she had multiple GoFundMe pages set up for her sob story with different amounts of time that the supposed child had been dead for. Her Facebook was full of selfies and party photos. She ended up asking for the job back a few months later and we shot her down pretty quick.” — taakoyakiii
Going On Charisma Alone
“Everything looked good on her resume, she was very professional and enthusiastic in her interview and just had that…thing. That self-starter attitude that made you feel like ‘this girl is going to get sh*t done’.
“Well…ran a background check and literally nothing checked out. She was not actually licensed in her field as she claimed and she had about a dozen priors for various white-collar crimes and none of her work history or references checked out. I guess she was just hoping that her charisma would win us over and that we wouldn’t bother checking up on her.” — uhB4
It is amazing how many people lie in job applications. However, most people will lie about one or two little things, not their whole application!
Pikachu, I Choose You!
“I was interviewing a chef for my business. The interview went great – and he had an excellent resume. Worked at some of the top restaurants in the world, 3-michelin star type places. Even did a short cooking test with some spare-ribs and they were incredible.
“There was some stiff competition though so eventually we decided to look at everyone’s Facebook profiles. One of his old profile pics was him at a Mardi Gras parade dressed as Pikachu with a big dildo strapped on. He got the job.” — Chinstrap_1
A lot of businesses check your Facebook page nowadays, but it’s good to hear a story about companies doing some snooping that didn’t end in disaster!
Former Arms Trafficker
“Good resume, former military. we were going to call him in for an interview but googled him first.
“Turns out he was arrested for arms trafficking, the report said he had stolen 2 or 3 small arms as well as a Stinger missile system from the base he was stationed at. The people he set up to sell the stuff to were under cover officers.” — ilre1484
Apparently they also had found in the guy’s possession, a collection of flak jackets and a humvee. Now that is a serious amount of gear to shift!
Getting A Warning Call From The Police
“This guy did great in the interview so I got the go ahead to run a background check and call his references. Something popped up in his background so I had to call the police station to figure out how to get a copy of the police report since whatever happened had just happened. I talked to someone on the phone and gave them a his name and who I was and what I was calling for. She put me on a brief hold then took a call back number and promised to call me back with some info.
“I received a call from the police department less than an hour later. An officer told me ‘I’m really not supposed to be doing this but I just wanted to let you know that interview guy had been arrested for a carjacking a woman and that woman works at your company’. He saw the company name and the guys name and warned us. I’m so grateful.” — oooohweeeee
Suing The Company She Was Applying To
“I wasn’t the hiring manager but my teammate was – a candidate came through that he and some other members interviewed and seemed pretty okay for the job until they checked her out. Turns out she was suing the company (yes, the one she applied for a job for) so my teammate ended up not hiring her.” — Miya81
I mean, would you hire her? Is it possible that she didn’t know because that is the only explanation that I can think of?
Sharing A Name With A Criminal
“I share my dad’s name. So when you google my name you pull up HIS exploits, stuff like being arrested for having 7 semi-trucks worth of weed in his driveway…. thanks, dad.” — Random-Miser
I can’t imagine having to end an interview by saying, “Look, I know you’re going to Google me, but all of those trucks of weed wasn’t me, it was my dad… honest.”
Racism And Online Abuse
“I tried googling a software developer I was interviewing but he had such a generic name I couldn’t track him down. When he mentioned that a recent career break was to stand in a local government election we found a semi-public Facebook feed full of racist and antisemitic posts. These included photoshopped pictures of Angela Merkel in a Nazi uniform and posts encouraging people not to eat at ‘foreign muck’ Indian takeaways.
“There were several local news articles highlighting his horrible racist social media activity. He was also quoted as saying ‘when I get elected and I’m in power I’ll show them’. Worst of all was the news article containing his unsolicited abusive rant at the mother of kidnapped child Madeline McCann!” — poppa_pod
Reversal
“Somewhat the reverse: I was sharked by a guy who was running his own startup and looking for talent in my specific field. I liked the look of his company, his business model seemed viable, salary was competitive and he offered equity. I was bored with my current position so it was tempting. Out of curiosity, I Googled him and his email he contacted me through (his name was really common), thinking maybe he’s used it to register anywhere else. His startup had no Glassdoor profile.
“I found a bunch of posts by him on a South Africa forum that were really, really racist against black people. He used the n-word at least once and was really aggressive. I declined the offer and linked him to what I found that sealed my decision. He responded back saying he wishes I’d reconsider, that those comments were somebody else. He used his LinkedIn profile photo for his avatar.” — GoOtterGo
It is just as important for you to look up the company/people who you are applying to as it is for employers to look up their employees.
Stalking The Interviewer
“I used to manage a group home. I was in charge of hiring the staff. A name came across my desk that I had to interview and I instantly looked them up. Turns out, this girl had an obsessive crush on me from years ago, and on her social media, she still did.
I was in a panic, because she was basically stalking everything I did, and I really couldn’t back out because it was 5 minutes before the interview. She came in, and it was so weird…she acted normal. We interviewed in a professional manner for about 15 minutes, showed her around, and I thought, ‘Wow, maybe she has done some maturing and just let it go.’ Then we got back to my office. I started a sentence like, ‘Well, (name), it’s been a pleasure having you here…’
“She replied: ‘Oh, no no no, we aren’t done yet. You think you can ignore everything like you don’t know what’s going on?!’ I know where you work, I know where you live, and I’m going to keep calling.'” — csjohnson
This person ultimately had to call the police and get a restraining order put in place to stop this person from stalking them.
Risqué Photographs Of The Applicant Online
“We were narrowing the group down to 2-3 candidates. We then Google/FB/Linkedin them and get to one that was in the top 2. Their FB was completely open to the public to view everything. Lots of racist, sexist comments. Risque photos of them with some slight nudity. Was too bad, their resume was quite good. Just not something we would consider appropriate.” — quimby15
If you want to put some slightly more exuberant things on your social media profiles, then your best option is probably to set all of your profiles to private!
Threatening To Sexually Assault A Coworker
“I hired a girl, she interviewed well. First day she threw up some red flags, but I figured I was misjudging or misinterpreting. People start missing money and one of my belongings disappears, which had never happened prior to her hiring. She was insulting everyone and making customers uncomfortable and I wanted her gone (less than 4 full weeks from her start date) but didn’t want to pay unemployment. Finally, do a search- arrest records in multiple states involving domestic violence and theft. She ended up saying she could ‘just rape’ one of my barely legal employees so I fired her for sexual harassment. Lesson learned: CHECK EVERYONE OUT NO MATTER HOW WELL THEY INTERVIEW!” — achemcgee
Anyone who would threaten to sexually assault someone else needs to be removed from the work environment immediately, and be monitored closely.
Interviewer Turning Themselves Into The Police
“I have a story from the other side of the desk. When I showed up for my interview the hiring manager was not there. I was told he was ‘out sick’ but I could interview with his backup. Halfway through the interview the office starts buzzing with activity. Whispers of an emergency were circulating and the ‘sick’ manager’s name is part of the emergency. We wrapped up the interview early and I went home.
“Later that day I googled his name. He wasn’t sick. He had turned himself in that morning for shooting/killing his baby’s mother. The bullet also grazed the baby but didn’t cause serious injury. I got the job.” — MysterionVsCthulhu
The person who wrote this went on to say that one of their friends had worked for this manager in the past and that he had seemed like a perfectly nice man.
In Jail At The Time Of The Interview
“Had a guy apply for an entry-level post with us recently. His CV was okay, so we offered him an interview. Social media seemed okay too. He never turned up for the interview.
“A couple of weeks later, there’s a story about him in the local paper. Turned out that he was living at the local boarding house, and was found in the kitchen one morning totally wasted, wearing nothing but a pair of socks. When a couple of women who also lived there tried to escort him back to his room, he got violent and assaulted them. Given the dates stated in the paper, he didn’t turn up because he’d been in jail at the time of the interview. His resume has now been added to the ‘do not touch with a 10ft barge pole’ section in our filing cabinet.” — bookpixie
That is one hell of a reason to miss the interview, “Sorry I couldn’t attend, I got rotten and naked in my lodgings, then violently tried to assault some women who were trying to help me… any chance I could come back in?”
History Of Lying And Violence
“I was a restaurant manager and the owner hired this guy as a chef without doing basic research (which he did a few times). Anyways, the guy said he had won several awards and worked with celebrities, etc. The guy was a total dick to everyone on staff. I decided to google him.
“First hit is a mugshot from a drug arrest. Then more articles, one about where he lied about getting a James Beard award from a previous restaurant he worked at. A comment about him owing 25,000 or something to his former boss. The only positive restaurant review he had was from 1990. I came in after the weekend to show my boss this stuff, when I learn he was fired the night before for exposing himself to one of the waitresses.” — poopship462
Wow, this guy sounds like the absolute worst! This is a testament to how much a quick Google search about someone can be incredibly useful.
Hunted By The FBI
“We had hired a new entry-level graphic designer. Let’s call him Will. He had talent and a decent portfolio, but there were some strange things right from the beginning. The weirdest thing was that he adamantly refused to accept direct deposit for his paycheck. He wanted a physical check every other week. Strange, but okay. So, one evening we’re all working really late on a project together. We’ve got some bottles of wine around, some pizzas, etc. It’s miserably long hours but we’re a good team and having a good time.
“All of a sudden Will looks up from his computer and fugging runs as fast as he can out the door. The next day Will doesn’t come into work. He doesn’t come in the next day either. So we Google him and see the FBI press release. Turns out he was arrested about 500 miles from our office a few hours after he ran out. I guess he got a tip that the FBI was onto him and decided to make a run for it. Turns out he had been defrauding payroll companies for years, to the tune of about $1M.” — anschauung
“Glad We Dodged That Bullet.”
“We had a near miss. We were talking about him and how something seemed a little off when we googled him. It was like he didn’t exist at all and the odd super positive tidbit of information that was always a bit too much of a stretch to be completely believable. One of the junior members of the team pipes up at this point. She’s overheard what we’re talking about. Turns out she’s worked the last two places he’s worked and he’s like a locust.
“He’s extremely good at his job but an absolute nightmare in all other ways. Sexual harassment, bullying, turning up wasted [bullies] everyone out of their role in his team, brings in his entourage to the point where almost anyone normal ragequits because the atmosphere is so toxic. Then when HR try and step in he hits them with a constructive dismissal case and drags lawyers in so there’s no paper trail. She said he’d done it at her last job and the one before.” — dukeofbun
I think that I’ll be googling myself now to see what there is about me out there! Hopefully, this will show you that you need to be wary of your internet footprint, especially when applying for jobs!
