We Google You by D. Coutu - Article Example

The young aspiring professional that is covered in the article is named Mimi Brewster. Mimi had great credentials such as a bachelor degree in Modern Chinese culture, an MBA from the University of Stanford, managerial experience in the apparel industry, and trilingual language skills which included English, Mandarin, and another Chinese dialect. The company interviewing Mimi had a position open in Shanghai China. The interviewer liked Mimi’s personality, skills, abilities, and professional credentials.

Fred, the interviewer, though that talent like Mimi was hard to come by. He wanted to hire her after the first interview. Virginia Flanders, HR manager, continued with the employee selection process. One of her background checks included looking at the first eleven pages of Google after placing the name of the candidate. Virginia found a couple of articles about Mimi. During her college years, she had been involved in the protest against the WTO and against the Chinese government. These revelations worried the HR manager so much that she discarded Mimi as a legitimate candidate.

Virginia advised Fred not to confront Mimi about the matter to protect the company against discrimination because due to abuse of privacy laws. At the end of the article, the company was leaning towards not hiring Mimi. The article concluded with the evaluation of the scenario by four professionals working at important positions in different organizations. They would express their expert opinion on whether the company should hire Mimi or discard her as a candidate. The first opinion came from John Palfrey, a law professor.

He believes the company should hire Mimi. If the firm does not hire her due to the Google search they would be discriminating. He also believes that discarding candidates because of internet content is counterproductive. The action eliminates a lot of talented young candidates that have excellent potential. The second opinion came from Jeffrey Joerres, CEO of Manpower. Mr. Jeffrey who is in charge of one of the largest employment agencies in America believes the company should not hire Mimi. He believes that those internet stories are sensitive due to the nature of the job which consists of having constant public relations with Chinese governmental officials.

A revelation of the content could hurt the company’s position in China. He thought Mimi’s conduct during the interview was improper and future similar behavior could offend a Chinese official.