More ridiculous issues

[surprisecake]

Added to the list of bizarre reasons my applications are keeping me up at night:

The pictures of me that the adcomms will see.

Since applications don't require photos of yourself, the only pictures of me they see are the horrible black and white ones on TOEFL and GRE marksheets. I used to think my passport/ drivers licence pics were bad, but wow, these are something else. My test ID pictures look exactly like how I felt those mornings: frazzled and about to cry. Not to mention I spent absolutely no time on my appearance before showing up for the tests. The end result is, I pretty much look like a disturbed serial killer/ mental patient. It bugs me so much that they will be picturing that insane woman in their heads when they read my applications!!

Incase you were wondering.... No, there is no point to this post.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

[surprisecake]

Another peripheral issue that bugs me:

Incase someone decides to google me, here are the first page results

1) My Facebook page

2) Other peoples' facebook pages with me on them

3) Angry heavy metal reviews on a website I used to write for when I was 15-16 (lots of cursing)

4) List of Rejected applicants for a Conference Travel grant by the Goverment of India

5) Another list of Rejected applicants for another Conference Travel grant by the Goverment of India

6) 9/11 tribute page, because one person with my first name and another person with my last name died that day.

I can pretend to be a scientist everywhere but on google

[Strangefox]

The end result is, I pretty much look like a disturbed serial killer/ mental patient.

I guess we all look this way in GRE/TOEFL photos Don't worry!

Happy New Year to you too!!!

[Bukharan]

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

May we all get what we want next year!!!

[Strangefox]

May we all get what we want next year!!!

Amen.

[surprisecake]

This year is so strange. I have finals starting tomorrow. (Practical veterinary gyanaecology... which means cattle butts early in the morning), I have absolutely no new years eve plans and I have a WEEK of finals coming up... but I have never been so excited on NYE before! I CANNOT wait for 2011!!

[Strangefox]

This year is so strange. I have finals starting tomorrow. (Practical veterinary gyanaecology... which means cattle butts early in the morning), I have absolutely no new years eve plans and I have a WEEK of finals coming up... but I have never been so excited on NYE before! I CANNOT wait for 2011!!

Good luck with finals! Cattle butts in the morning sounds like an exciting experience

[surprisecake]

I'm thinking of it as my rebirth. There will be mucous, fluids, genitalia, a panicky crying woman (er, i'm not fond of performing rectal exams) ... and voila, a grad student in waiting will be born

Edited December 31, 2010 by surprisecake

[natsteel]

Another peripheral issue that bugs me:

Incase someone decides to google me, here are the first page results

1) My Facebook page

2) Other peoples' facebook pages with me on them

3) Angry heavy metal reviews on a website I used to write for when I was 15-16 (lots of cursing)

4) List of Rejected applicants for a Conference Travel grant by the Goverment of India

5) Another list of Rejected applicants for another Conference Travel grant by the Goverment of India

6) 9/11 tribute page, because one person with my first name and another person with my last name died that day.

I can pretend to be a scientist everywhere but on google

I can sympathize, but there are ways you can manage your Google search results, for just this sort of situation. Of course, you won't be able to just get rid of stuff like the reviews and rejected applicant lists but perhaps you can push them back. My first results are my Academia.edu page (make one and don't even put alot on it if you don't want because they always come up very high in the first page of results), my LinkedIn profile (these also come up very high, so it's best to register and have a profile), my Mendeley profile (again, same as before), and my Goodreads profile. Facebook will almost always be on the first page, since all social media websites end up with prominent placement in personal Google searches, but by registering and creating the profiles I mentioned above and on other social media websites (even if you won't use them), you can push a few of those undesirable search results farther down and replace them with academically-related type results. Also, un-tag yourself from any of your friends' Facebook pics... all this should be done right away since it doesn't happen overnight and you have a limited amount of time until adcoms may begin Googling your name. I read an article about adcoms and search committees Googling candidates last year and began taking steps then to manage what comes up when Googling my name...

For more info, see http://mycareerinvention.com/personal-seo-how-to-manage-your-reputation-online/

Edited December 31, 2010 by natsteel

[surprisecake]

OOOoooh. That's good stuff, natsteel. I've been wondering precisely about what sites to sign up at. That's good, constructive, yet mentally non-taxing stuff I can do while i'm waiting to hear back from schools. Thank you

[natsteel]

No problem, surprisecake... I have two Twitter accounts-one that I use primarily which does not have my real name attached and another using my real name which I rarely use. It doesn't matter if you use the sites so long as your profile shows up in the Google search. Make your profiles for all those sites as professional as possible when it comes to pics and the other information. The best piece of advice I could give would be to create these profiles specifically with adcoms in mind. I've read a bunch of articles about people applying for grad school or jobs and not getting them because of unflattering pictures of them getting drunk or whatnot (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20202935/ns/business-personal_finance/)... Just sign up for these sites (Twitter, Academia.edu, Mendeley, etc...) and use a relatively professional looking profile pic and academically-slanted profile information. I hope you're able to push some of that other stuff off your first page. Good luck!!

P.S. - I know some people aren't too hot on Academia.edu, but it almost always comes up on the first Google page and is academically-oriented. You can post your research interests and a CV on there as well. Even cooler, it also tells you when someone has searched your name or you have come up in someone's Google search and how many views each of your profile pages receive.

Edited December 31, 2010 by natsteel

[surprisecake]

A site that I signed up for 2-3 weeks ago (Planbig.com) is showing up on my first page of results already! I didn't sign up to clear up my results but its nice to have a time-frame now...

[MoJingly]

Even cooler, it also tells you when someone has searched your name or you have come up in someone's Google search and how many views each of your profile pages receive.

I got my first email this morning from Academia telling me that somebody searched for me on Google. They entered my name and my city. I would by lying if I said I didn't think that was sort of... creepy.

[eklavya]

you guys google yourself!?

[MoJingly]

you guys google yourself!?

Sure! I want to know what people will find if they search for me. Academia must know when I am the one performing the search, though, because I only seem to get an email if the search was performed at a different IP address. Does anybody know how this works?

[Strangefox]

you guys google yourself!?

I do But not too often, don't worry

[LJK]

There aren't many benefits of having a common name (First Name = Top 25, Last Name = Top 75 according to namestatistics.com) but being un-google-able without another keyword is one of them. You can google my name + [uG University] and get lovely academic honors and leadership results but just my name leads to a collection of doctors, politicians, attorneys, small business owners, etc. that are clearly not me. It takes to page 8 for the first reference to me to come up and its an academically oriented page.

[MoJingly]

I got my first email this morning from Academia telling me that somebody searched for me on Google. They entered my name and my city. I would by lying if I said I didn't think that was sort of... creepy.

This just in: It was my mother.

[surprisecake]

hahahaHHAhahaa. That is so sweet.

[Strangefox]

This just in: It was my mother.

[katerific]

One time my old advisor googled me (he lost my email address or something silly) and he ended up at my mom's webpage (she's a writer). "Wow, I had no idea that your mom was a published author, katerific!"

Also, the worst things that come up for me are all the silly facebook groups I'm in and the silly interests I list in my profile.

[qbtacoma]

Most of my results are related to a political blog I wrote for in college - off-putting to some - as well as a lot of buzz about those opinions. Honestly, I'm up front about my biases and there's nothing I can do if people are offended by my politics. There is also an embarrassing poem I wrote when I was 16.

Thanks for ideas on pushing results down!