Last Updated on April 25, 2025 by Bright Past
In today’s digital age, your online presence can make or break your chances of landing a job. Everything from your social media activity to the images and comments linked to your name on Google can influence how potential employers perceive you.
Evidence suggests more and more hiring managers use social networks and Google to research candidates during the hiring phase. These recruitment tools help hiring managers monitor the content they post online and form an opinion about the candidates based on what they see. Some employers go as far as to decide against hiring a candidate due to a negative post they’re associated with online.
Want to boost your chances of getting hired? Keep reading and see why it’s important to suppress Google Results if you want to increase your job chances!
What Hiring Managers Don’t Want to See
Your online presence is where you get the chance to make a good first impression, even before a face-to-face job interview. Every job seeker wants their results to present them as polished professionals, but they often forget that it’s more important to focus on what hiring managers don’t want to see.
- Traces of criminal behavior.
- Evidence of problematic alcohol or illegal drug consumption.
- Prejudice claims about gender, race, or religion.
- Private data about previous employers.
- Critique of a previous employer or company they’ve worked for.
If any of these things listed appear on Google, pay attention to where the negative search results are coming from. You must take further steps to remove them and enhance your likelihood of landing a job.
How To Make Your Online Presence An Asset, Not a Threat to Your Job Opportunity
No matter how negative your online image is, you can always improve it by taking the following steps:
- Limit Who Can See Your Posts – Go to privacy settings and restrict an individual’s access to the content you share. Keep negative content away from the eyes of employers or hiring managers – only friends and followers should see your posts.
- Think Before You Post – Never post content that you might later regret. Even if you remove it right away, it will still exist as a screenshot on someone else’s gallery. Ask yourself if the post is suitable for a work setting or if it will affect your company’s reputation.
- Remove Negative Content – Removing negative content that others posted is difficult, but it’s not impossible. If the post violates the site’s Terms of Service or it meets the policy requirements for removal, you are good to go.
- Address False Information – In case the info contained in Google for your name is about another individual with the same name and surname, emphasize this on your application so that the hiring team doesn’t judge you for someone else’s mistake.
- Update Content Regularly – The best way to push down negative info in your Google search results page is to publish and update new content regularly, or hire a professional company to do that for you. You should also optimize your CV for the job you want and ensure it’s easy to read.
Let Bright Past Help You Land Your Dream Job
Why is it so hard to remove stuff from the internet? Hitting the reset button to negative info about you is almost impossible because even removed content can be screenshotted, and you can’t get someone to delete their post. But BrightPast can fix your online reputation and help you maintain control of how you are perceived online.
Get in touch with us now, and our team will help you land your dream job in no time.