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Heartodixie	Post subject: Would you hire me? Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 12:24 am
Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2005 1:15 am Posts: 1432 Location: Alabamer	Should this affect your decision whether to hire this guy? Would it? I'll leave the real-life context of this post to your imagination.
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paulwiggins	Post subject: Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 3:20 am
Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2003 12:01 am Posts: 3137 Location: Homebush NSW Australia	I fear the direction this thread could head in.
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Redaktor	Post subject: Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 6:28 am
Joined: Tue Nov 21, 2006 1:22 pm Posts: 377 Location: Up North and unaffiliated	What, you mean crap writing? Absolutely.
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Wayne Countryman	Post subject: Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 9:39 am
Joined: Mon Apr 08, 2002 12:01 am Posts: 1775 Location: Baltimore	OK, I'll plunge in. What's most noteworthy to me is the proselytizing. It's a column--apparently he had the freedom to go where he wanted in it. I wouldn't hold his religious zeal against him, if that's the question, unless he expected to insert his beliefs inappropriately hither and yon. We all believe in something, even if it's atheism or testyness, booze, baseball or chocolate. Our job as copy editors is to remain objective.
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onceahack	Post subject: Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 10:14 am
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 1:39 pm Posts: 731 Location: Central Texas	It also seems to be a -30- column in a college newspaper---the likes of which should never occur in real life. (Well, maybe once at the end of a long and distinguished career. And we all know they actually are allowed more often than they should be.) I'd ignore this one and base a hiring decision on his prior columns.
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Wayne Countryman	Post subject: Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 10:30 am
Joined: Mon Apr 08, 2002 12:01 am Posts: 1775 Location: Baltimore	This might be the place to pass along something mentioned by more than one educator after hours at the ACES conference: Many of today's students are creating online trails that prospective employers could hold against them. Not only columns and blogs, but Facebook and MySpace pages, etc. Professors said students tend to blow off their warnings, saying that that's the way it is these days. Some potential employers do search online for info about applicants. Two junior staff members at my last employer, which publishes two magazines, took it upon themselves "to Google" me after my interview for a job there. They found: a photo of me drinking in the hotel bar during the most recent ACES conference; something I'd written years earlier on the ACES discussion board about how to approach headline writing. It's being used by journalism professors around the country (I guess it's on the ACES instructional CD). They offered this info to support my hiring. The editor in chief/VP was pleased. Other companies might not have been, though. It's a good idea to check yourself. In my case, the sordid tale of a former DEA agent with the same first and last name shows up. We'd briefly lived in the same town a few years before he went to prison. I'd have been more careful when opening my door had I known of him back then. And, I'm ready in case an interviewer brings it up.
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Docsdoctor	Post subject: Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 1:32 pm
Joined: Fri Oct 01, 2004 12:01 am Posts: 575 Location: Mass.	Wayne Countryman wrote: The editor in chief/VP was pleased. Pleased that they took the trouble to Google you? Googling my name yields a whole lot of stories about a notorious pervert who is - as far as I know - no relation. Before he surfaced, the worst I got was hearing jokes about the guy who shot Harvey Milk. I'd rather have a DEA agent show up.
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lfelaco	Post subject: Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 1:49 pm
Joined: Mon Jun 12, 2006 11:48 am Posts: 523 Location: Charlestown, RI	How lucky I am that the only people in North America who share my last name are my immediate family.
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Heartodixie	Post subject: Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 2:47 pm
Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2005 1:15 am Posts: 1432 Location: Alabamer	The bad writing and proselytizing are worrisome. As a resident of the state, the fact that he saw fit to use a public school newspaper as a pulpit makes me wonder where his head is. Not to mention what else my tax dollars subsidize.
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onceahack	Post subject: Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 3:13 pm
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 1:39 pm Posts: 731 Location: Central Texas	I'm guessing that his prior columns wouldn't lead to a different conclusion.
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KyleJRM	Post subject: Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 6:05 pm
Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 6:03 pm Posts: 103 Location: Illinois	Docsdoctor wrote: Wayne Countryman wrote: The editor in chief/VP was pleased. Pleased that they took the trouble to Google you? Googling my name yields a whole lot of stories about a notorious pervert who is - as far as I know - no relation. Before he surfaced, the worst I got was hearing jokes about the guy who shot Harvey Milk. I'd rather have a DEA agent show up. Turns out my scrawny little 5'6" frame led me to be a starting tailback for the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. People should be careful assuming what they google turns out to be about the person in question, even with obscure names.
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