Max Schireson's blog

If you’re not planning to look for a job or to hire someone at some point in the future, don’t read this post.

Five years ago, I would study a candidate’s resume as the first step in assessing their fit for a job.

Now, the first place I go is the internet.

Linkedin typically has your standard resume information, but that’s only the beginning. I’ll read their blog, if they have one. I might look at their tweets. Usually I can find some other type of residue of their internet lives: a presentation, a white paper, activity in forums, something. Recently I saw a very creatively built presentation from a marketing candidate. Before I had interviewed her I already wanted to hire her.

My advice for job seekers:

• Invest at least a little time in keeping your public profile on Linkedin up to date
• Google yourself and see what people find
• Long term, think about what you’re leaving behind
• Careful about what you post; while as a manager I try hard to ignore employees personal lives I am quite sure some of the things I have stumbled upon were not meant to be viewed by prospective employers
• Thoroughly check out the folks you are interviewing with on the internet and see if you want to work for them

One prime example is forum activity. Our development team also does a lot of support. I am pretty confident that I can tell who on that team will do well should they ever need another job. I just look at their posts. Did they respond quickly? Did they communicate clearly? Was the user happy with the response and did it solve their problem?

My advice for hiring managers:

• See what you can learn about job candidates on the internet
• Expect them to do likewise for you; interviews are a two way street