‘Digital dirt’ affecting job hunters – Google changes the way employers research candidates

Most job hunters never even know when they’ve lost out on an interview because of "digital dirt." That could include your chat-room tirade on an ex-roommate’s sex life or that photo of you and college buddies smoking something that’s not exactly tobacco — stuff a prospective employer finds by Googling your name that causes her to scratch you off the "to call in" list.

Such ignorance would have been bliss for Hamilton Linn who, back in 1997, the days before we Googled everything, was interviewing with an Internet Explorer manager at Microsoft headquarters. The interviewer called up on his screen Linn’s personal Web page, which revealed:

By Patricia Kitchen, Newsday

Full Story: http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/tech_plus/article/0,1713,BDC_2463_4027829,00.html