Someone May Be Sabotaging Your Job Search

These days, a job search is often a long, discouraging slog through endless rejection and, worse than the rejection, being ignored -- invisible. All that effort to apply, and then nothing. Rejection is almost a high point, because it means someone (or something) responded, at least.

Someone Else's Issues Could Be Wrecking Opportunities for You

One of the reasons your job search may take too long is because of mistaken online identity. Something "bad" associated with your name can end opportunities very quickly, and you'll never know it happened.

Someone else with the same name you have on your resume, LinkedIn profile, or job application could be sabotaging YOUR job search.

Like anyone contemplating making a big investment, employers research job applicants before turning them into job candidates. Since this is a relatively recent issue, most of us don't pay sufficient attention to what those employers will find in their research.

You may be leading a perfect life, avoiding Facebook and other social media (except LinkedIn), and keeping a very low profile to avoid the social media problems we all read about. You may feel you have no reason to worry about what is online about you. Unfortunately, you could be very wrong.

Yes, recruiters do reject applicants too often with too little "proof" these days! The reason is simple. Since most recruiters are measured on how quickly they fill a job (a.k.a., "time-to-hire"), they don't spend much time resolving the issues on problem applications. If the names are the same, that is usually sufficient information to move on to the next applicant -- there are usually more than enough applicants to choose from.

Lost Opportunities Are Usually Invisible

You won't usually know about the opportunities that didn't happen, but you may be able to see the indicators.

Case study: an unemployed professional man with solid experience and an excellent resume and LinkedIn profile spent the first four months of his job search with no results -- not a single interview -- even though he had been diligently pursuing opportunities both online and off. Nothing!

After four months of no results, he finally Googled himself and discovered a man with the same name, in the same state, was a disbarred attorney named in a US Supreme Court obscenity case. Yikes!

So, he differentiated himself by adding his middle initial to his resume, LinkedIn profile, and all of his other job search documents. Within two weeks, he had his first job interview. Within two months, he was employed again, in a good job.

[More details: How Name Confusion Can Make Your Job Search More Difficult ]

"Defensive Googling" Is the Solution

If you don't know about content that is harming your job search, you won't be able to address the problems. When you do know about problems, you can differentiate yourself from the individual(s) causing the confusion.

1. Search Google (and Bing) using the name(s) you use for your job search.

To see what is happening, type the name you use on your LinkedIn Profile, your resume and your job applications into a Google (or Bing) search bar with quotation marks around it, like this:

"First name Last name"

Enclosing your name within quotation marks tells Google and Bing that you want those words in a phrase, side-by-side. Otherwise, the search engines will show you results where those two words appear anywhere on the same webpage, regardless of how far apart or unrelated in context.

[More info: Understanding Google Search Ground Rules.]

2. Carefully study the first three pages of search results.

Look for anything negative that an employer would see associated with your name -- even if it is NOT about you.

If you find something inappropriate associated with a version of your name, even when it involves someone else, that entry might make an employer put your resume in the "reject" pile. So, even if it's not about you, you have a potential problem if you use that version of your name for your job search.

The inappropriate material could include photos and videos as well as standard web pages, blog posts, comments on blog posts, news items, public records (like court dockets), and other "public" information readily available online.

You want to find a version of your name without something bad associated with it. If you do find a problem on the first page or the second page, pay close attention to it. Monitor that entry's location in search results, hopefully dropping lower every time you see it (don't click on it!).

3. Look for a "clean" version of your name -- or, at least, one that won't be confused with a "bad" person.

Check all the versions of your name you can think of with (and without) your middle name or middle initial, etc. Hopefully, you'll find a completely clean version of your name. That version doesn't have anything negative -- from anyone, any where -- associated with it, but it is still your real name.

If you can't find a completely clean version of your name, choose the cleanest that won't be confusing to an employer in your target location. Avoid the version of your name which is the same as someone who has robbed a bank, particularly if the robbery was in your state. But, if you're an accounting professional in Massachusetts, and you find a poet in Indiana (or even the obituary of a dead poet in Indiana) with the same name, you probably don't need to be too concerned.

4. Claim the clean (or cleanest) version of your name in LinkedIn.

My recommendation is to claim your name on LinkedIn. It is the most visible and powerful professional directory and is, consequently, used most often in research. LinkedIn also usually appears in the first page of search results on any name.

When more than one LinkedIn member uses the same name, LinkedIn often shows that to Google and it appears in search results like this, "There are 25 professionals named [whatever]" linked to a page listing those profiles. That puts searchers on notice that more than one person uses that name and that they need to be sure to pick the "right" person.

[More details: Finding the Best Version of Your Name for Your Job Search]

5. Use that clean name consistently in your job search and career.

Because recruiters and potential employers will do that Google research, use your LinkedIn/clean name for all of your professional visibility, including:

• Resume
• Cover Letters
• Email address
• Email signature
• LinkedIn Profile and other professional social media
• Business/networking cards
• Job applications
• Professional association memberships - name tags, directory listings, etc.

Keep everything "in sync," particularly in relation to your LinkedIn Profile. Remember that others research names as well, including potential clients, potential members of your professional network, someone considering asking you out on a date, or even the parents of your children's friends.

6. Protect your professional name.

Keep it clean! If you must rant about politics, religion, sports, etc. online, do it with a different version of your name. Make sure that you don't throw any "digital dirt" on your clean name, and watch out for someone else making the name dirty (see # 7).

7. Make defensive Googling a routine.

This is NOT "vanity Googling" or "ego surfing." This is "defensive Googling" -- enlightened 21st century reputation management!

Set up a Google Alert on all versions of your name, including the "clean" version. Keep track of what is happening to your clean name in case someone else using that name does something that makes it unusable for you.

Google Alerts are free and will notify you when something new associated with the name appears in Google search results.

Online Reputation Management Is the New Reality

Defensive Googling is just the beginning of an online reputation management program, and it shouldn't be suspended when the job seeker has found a new job. Mistaken online identity is a permanent risk for all of us, unless we have particularly unique names.

Bottom Line

Mistaken online identity can cause serious problems for the innocent person who has the same name as someone who has publicly misbehaved. But, it can usually be managed, as long as you are aware of the situation and address it.

Be sure to follow me on LinkedIn and Twitter (@NETabilities) for more job search tips!

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Susan P. Joyce is president of NETability, Inc., a veteran of the United States Marine Corps, a Visiting Scholar at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and the editor and chief technology writer for WorkCoachCafe.com.