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November 18, 2008 You can't make this stuff up...

A client just called me. I had been coaching his sales rep and it was clear to me very early in our dealings that troubling times lay ahead. I didn't like what I was hearing and we wound up having several back and forth conversations to try and straighten out expectations. Last Friday, the rep was canned.

So, the owner calls me today and gave me the whole story and told me he'd use me again, blah, blah, blah. But then he adds, "The next time we go to hire, we are going to Google search the name." I asked why and he continued, "Turns out the guy had done some modeling in the past...for Playgirl."

Now, neither of us ever saw the pictures and I doubt that his choice of periodicals would have impacted his sales abilities, it's just that you'd think a young guy would have the cognitive thought, "I wonder how this decision would impact my future..."

My wife and I try to impress upon the girls that colleges and employers are increasingly Googling their prospective students/hires to see what they are made of. It is believed, from what I read, that people's true make up comes out on line. My middle daughter, Emma, replied, "Well that's who I am, Dad, and any school that doesn't like it is not a school that I am interested in!" Let's hope Yale (her number one choice) has either a sense of humor or an Internet failure the day her application crosses their desk.

Posted by Bill Farquharson on November 18, 2008 | Comments (0)