Google Search Saves Me From Hiring a R.S.O.

Here is the lastest from my endless hunt to find a good candidate for an opening in the company I co-own...


I posted an ad on a local help wanted website. I get an applicant with a very good resume...had been a vice president of a company doing work in a similar field. I set up an initial phone conversation which goes really well. I am slightly surprised to find that he had been laid off from his previous company but alas, it's the economy, right?


I get ready to schedule a phone interview with the two other business owners and, out of curiousity, Google the candidate's name. I started this practice after I Googled a previous candidate and a hit came up referencing a rape/murder by someone of the same name. Turns out it was a distant cousin with the same first and last name but a different middle name. Sometimes I find out about previous bankruptcies or Facebook pages.


Well, this particular candidate, whom I will call "Matthew Small" so he can't find that I blogged about this, had a hit on his name referencing an arrest on suspicion of child solicitation. Evidently a Matthew Small had yelled very crude comments out the window of his minivan to a 14-year-old girl. I won't repeat the comments but suffice it to say, it involved him wanting to do something with a part of her female anatomy that is named after a cat.


He has a fairly common last name so I look up the size of the town he is in to find out if it's possible that there are multiple people of that same name. The town size is 596 people. This is not looking good. I do another Google search using additional search terms and find that he was indeed convicted of child solicitation and lost the appeal.


I do an inmate search in the state prison records (this is all free to search online) and find he spent 5 months, 27 days in prison. I use Switchboard.com to confirm there are only two Matthew Smalls in the town...a Matthew C. Small and a Matthew J. Small. And the C. one is 96.


This is not looking good. I am not sure of our candidate's middle name so I now do a search on the registered sex offender website. And there is a mug shot of a 40-year-old man in a business suit with a very morose expression.


Finally, I look up his professional licensing and lo and behold, it has his middle name of J. and the same email address as the one he used to email me.


I shudder to think I nearly interviewed and hired a registered sex offender. Naturally he was not forthcoming in his interview. I train the new reps all by myself. Can we all give a "hallelujah" for God? And Google.