What is your Online Footprint?

Category: TechToday

What seemed like a long time ago, I found myself looking for an English tutoring job shortly after surviving the dreaded "Y2K" (which was very much like this year's Mayan "apocalyptic" event). I ended up being interviewed by a smug French expatriate that was too comfortable in his cushy chair and huge city view. Suffice to say, it wasn't a very pleasant experience with the Frenchman telling me midway through the interview that I shouldn't use "canned" answers (what he failed to understand was that there are people as dull as I am! And I hadn't even begun to tell him about Linux!). Ten minutes before the 20-minute French inquisition was over, a mischievous smile passed over his face and he made a sly threat saying: "What would happen if I searched for you online?" With a woosh of his leather swivel chair (which was probably more expensive than my rent), he turned to his HP desktop and started typing my name.

Herve Villachaize was a lot nice than that HR guy. Screen cap from The Man with the Golden Gun.

Now, this was 2001. There was no Twitter and the term "social networking" had yet to be invented. Yahoo was still popular and had no idea about the dire straits it would end up in a decade later. Tablets and smartphones weren't affordable yet and the church of Apple was still in its infancy. My French interviewer tried to look intimidating as he searched online for any instance of my name online but he was obviously disappointed. All he found out when he searched for yours truly was that I was a member of a now-defunct Sherlock Holmes online club.

Most people probably won't have an interviewer like that Frenchman, who searched for my name during the interview itself. A recruiter interested in hiring you probably already searched for you online either through a fairly advanced proprietary search application or method or through rudimentary data mining. The Internet has become much more sophisticated in its ability to search but it's more about people's habits that have made searching for persons easier and more comprehensive. In fact, general job-related sites like MSN Careers and LinkedIn encourage that you have a strong online presence. There are also hundreds of sites out there that offer to build and display your online portfolio so you can get discovered. And there of course those people who just mindlessly share themselves online, whether it's in the form of their ego-stroking photos or inane chatter.

Of course, when it comes to photos there's perfectly nothing wrong if you're Vietnamese and extremely cute.

People still shake their heads when I tell them I don't have Twitter and Facebook. Some of them think I'm just pulling their leg or being antisocial. I'd actually prefer people read my contributions to the openSUSE wiki or read my tutorials in Unsolicited But Offered than see photos of me climbing hills in Sheshan Park or wearing my Indiana Jones leather jacket. Do I want people to find me on the Internet? Not really, but even with my size 6 1/2 online footprint I'm pretty easy to find. Do I want people to find out what I've contributed to the Internet and what I can do? Definitely, especially if it would get me a job or an opportunity to help someone out.

Going Commando

The Internet is a communal place for socializing, building bridges, creating, and entertaining. Your online footprint should reflect your motives for being on the Internet. Just because services like Tumblr and Google+ exist and are free, it doesn't mean you should have an account. Every weekend, I debate with myself whether I should close down my old Yahoo e-mail and my more recent LinkedIn account. Like most people when the Internet grew in the 90s, I signed up to Yahoo for Geocities and e-mail services, but with Geocities dead and their e-mail services as attractive to spam as dung is to mosquitoes I don't see the point of keeping it up. I had no hesitations deleting my other Yahoo account based in Australia, which had the distinct advantage of having POP service for its users back in the day.

The decision to delete ties to LinkedIn is a bit less clear. LinkedIn's relevance in most industries is debatable, but some people swear by it and insist you're a dinosaur without it. I'm pretty sure hundreds of professionals have been successful through its services, but I have a notion that it works in the same principle as other social networking services - you'd have to actively maintain it and socialize ad infinitum.

I'd rather write a few more entries about troubleshooting Linux distributions or even about the hazards of being interviewed by a Frenchman armed with a search engine.