Google is Forever

A few weeks ago, I received this e-mail from reader Ryan Miner that I wanted to share with you:

"When I was a 19 year-old undergraduate student at Duquesne University I created a Facebook group in opposition to a proposal to allow a Gay-Straight Alliance to form on campus. I used the term subhuman to lament homosexuality.

I could not have been more wrong. My words were unabashedly despicable and unambiguously insensitive. My actions were the antithesis of the same faith I used to defend myself, and it was an indelibly poor reflection on my personal character. I embarrassed my family, my friends, my hometown, and Duquesne University. I was in no position to cast such blatant judgment, and I pray that I can be forgiven and learn from this awful experience.

As a result of the media attention and the emerging technology of this decade, I am infinitely attached to my mistake in the annals of Google. The stories you read from the Google results paint a polar opposite picture of who I am today. However, actions inevitably and invariably have consequences, and the reckless comments I made at 19 continue to plague me in my professional career. I have been denied employment and was even fired from a great opportunity as a result of the incident at Duquesne.

I am now looking to expand my career, but each time I submit a new resume, a sense of bleak fear overcomes me, wondering whether or not a company will Google my name only to toss my resume in the trash and move to the next applicant. If only I could relay to a potential employer that my beliefs have changed and I would never engage in that type of behavior in the future. But you reap with you sow, and I will continue to deal with the consequences of my mistake."

There can never be too many stories like this to remind us that Google is forever. 

Comments

[Karen Tanboor]

This post concerns me for the fact that the person who wrote it claims to have been fired for it. I do believe that this would be illegal to fire someone over a Google post.

And if he is so concerned start blogging and working on his "brand" so that this is not the first thing that comes up but newer more positive things.

[Laura]

If you read closely, you'll notice he said he wasn't fired for a Google post, but for the "incident at Duquesne".

Thanks for posting this, it's a great reminder of the power of the internet and social media. A very tough lesson to learn.

[Paul Burrell]

Yes, the issue is that this was covered extensively in the press, and sympathetically by the right-wing press as a free speech case in 2005.

However, the writer is now the wizened old age of 24, perhaps 25. A few years abroad, a shift to favoring a middle name (R Englebert Miner) over the Ryan form, and a decent work history -- all would tend to make this decrease in visibility very fast.

In fact, a brighter spark would've started using the rearranged nome de travail and not written a career blogger crying.

[Alexandra Levit]

@Karen and @Paul: Very interesting point about drawing renewed attention to the controversy with this blog post. Although I didn't initially perceive it that way, I am inclined to at least partially agree. Thanks for the insights!

@Laura: Yes, that's right. Thanks for taking the time to read and comment.