Feedback regarding a self-search on google

[psychquestion]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Posting from a new account to keep myself anonymous - fairly regular poster on here and would like some feedback from the general members especially any from current professionals that review for internships.

I will be applying for internship shortly and there is emphasis from our director of clinical training on monitoring your online presence and presentation. After googling myself (I have a relatively uncommon name) I found some rather disturbing posts regarding substance use made to a newsgroups (i.e. alt.drugs etc.) back in the 90's when I was 15-16 years old. These messages showed up because google decided to index and archive all the old newsgroup posts since the early 80's. Lucky me. 🙁

I cannot remove these posts -- so that is not an option. They are buried 3-4 pages deep in search results and there is only one reference to the message. I have long since resolved that blip that occurred during a particularly difficult developmental period as a teenager. I blame it on an unlucky combination on an undeveloped pre-frontal cortex, rebelliousness, poor choices, and a lack of foresight into how powerful google would be someday.

Could this haunt me come time to apply for internship? How would this be perceived if found by sites when I am applying? I've put a great deal of effort and work into my training the past few years and I like to think I have a strong vita however it is terrifying (and embarrassing) to think that a choice made more than 10 years ago will ruin my chance for a good internship. Sorry about the length and thanks for the feedback.

 

[PsychPhDone]

You might be able to get Google to un-cache those pages. It's complicated, but possible. If it's buried several pages in, I wouldn't worry about it. Make sure whatever comes up on the first page is related to now-you (like an Academia/ResearchGate) page.

 

[neuronic]

Don't worry, you will likely not have internship directors googling applicants. When it may come up is in your work with patients, who may not have anything better to do. It is getting harder and harder to remain anonymous. I thought I was in the clear, but our wedding photos got posted by our photographer and so do our video. One thing you can do is possibly create a professional webpage for yourself that will keep showing up first. But I wouldn't lose sleep over it.

 

[Balmoral]

I would not be overly concerned. I am sure readers are too busy to google the 300+ applicants they get. The important thing is to be honest and prepared to explain should someone bring something like that up.

 

[KillerDiller]

I worked on the committee reviewing intern applicants for my site this most recent go-round. I honestly wouldn't worry about it. None of us on the committee had time to google applicant names, and even if we did, there was no way we would have searched through 3 pages of results.

 

[HomeworkHelper]

It is hard having an unusual name (I'm the only person with my first/last name as far as I know). When I google my name, everything that comes up is related to me, which stinks when you think about clients googling you.

At least as far as internships go, I don't imagine you will have any problems. I helped "ghost rate" applicants at my VA site (i.e., I participated in reviewing applications and attended discussions during the selection process but my ratings did not get added in with the staff members who were reviewing the applications as well). During this process, there were so many applications to look at and so much information to go through that (each APPIC document is pages and pages long) it didn't make sense to go out of your way to google anybody. I didn't hear any staff member I met with that mentioned they did that either. Now, might they google the applicants who match to their site to remind themselves of who they were (e.g. see if they can find a professional site with a picture)? Maybe. That seems more in the realm of possibility.

I would recommend getting an Academia.edu page if you don't have one. Google lists that page at the top of my search results AND, Academia tracks how many people (and when) they search for you on a search engine and visit your academia page. Soooo nice to know when people are looking you up. Now, I can't actually remember if anyone searched for me for internship, but they definitely searched for me during the postdoc application and interview process.