Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

["Gina Norman" <gina.norman AT nortelnetworks.com>]

Title: RE: [internetworkers] ethical hacking

> Gina, what kinds of experiences have you had in analyzing Google
> searches on prospects? I'm wondering what kinds of things would
> set off alarms or concerns. After thinking about it, I don't know
> what I would make out of posts in a person's past. Any ideas from
> the rest of you?

Well, like Steve Burnett mentioned, I check to see if past email addresses and forum posts match up with the experience they've claimed.  I don't assume that "no evidence" = lie (because some folks are fanatical about using "fake" [/non-identifying] addresses on mailing lists), but a lack of evidence _will_ make me probe more deeply.  I can also often get a sense of character from someone's posts -- were they helpful?  Were their posts understandable (good communication skills are often key in the sorts of positions I've hired for in the past)?  If they have a website, I'll usually spend some time there, as well, for several reasons: first, if we share interests in common, that can be a good icebreaker in the interview; second, there may be warning signs such as lots of copyrighted materials (a no-no in my book), poor HTML (assuming that's a skill I'm hiring for in the position), or atrocious grammar/spelling (I forgive typos, as I make plenty of them myself  ;-).

Obviously, I cut folks a great deal of slack, as these are a personal endeavors that are not necessarily indicative of the effort/expertise they may put into a job.  That being said, it's been my experience that if someone takes care with their personal business, they almost always take the same of greater care with their work.  If someone is careless about their personal business they may or may not be careful at work, but I've got no particular reason to think they will pay important to details.  Often a person's sense of humor comes through in posts or in a website, and though I'm not hiring for stand-up comics, a sense of humor makes someone more pleasant to work with.

Admittedly, these are *completely* subjective standards (is that oxymoronic?), but they've worked for me in the past.  If nothing else, they're often a good way to separate out the candidates you want to interview when you receive 25+ applications for every available position.  Finally, despite the layoffs (our group has been cut by more than 60%), five of the seven full-time people I have hired are still with Nortel (and three of those came from mailing lists I read), so I feel pretty good about my tactics for finding good folks.

YMMV, as always,

Gina