I've had both another experience with stupid dishonest recruiters and with being rejected because of my 'internet reputation'. The first isn't so significant (I just laugh about these people)... but the second is. This was the first time I have been rejected face-to-face during an interview with a steady employer, because of their fear of damage to their image. (As opposed to a recruiter or company ditching me for a contract job.)

The dishonest recruiter

I got called a few times by Mark Smit from 'IT-Sourcing', who picked up my CV from the 'net and who wanted to place me somewhere for a PHP/Drupal job. He quickly turned out to be just a one-man intermediary (without own clients) who does not even really know the business, but just uses a mobile phone and 'company website' to make money without being any added value to anyone. Like so many so-called 'recruiters'. But hey, in my position... if he can get me a job somewhere I didn't know of, I'm willing to listen...

For the third assignment he called me for, it quickly turned out that he was trying to con me into thinking he had a job at a Drupal company lined up. Just like Floris Bouwman from Huxley associates who did the same last august1, Mark didn't realize how small the Drupal world is and that I know all these companies' names.

He had not sent me any details about the job in writing/e-mail (despite my request) when he called me up and said he had already arranged a date for an interview for me. When he then named the company's name... I was a bit irked. Because they are in biking distance from my house, I would have contacted them soon anyway - and now Mark was in the middle. Mark was talking like I had just hurt his feelings; he didn't see what the problem was, he had gotten me an interview which would probably get me a nice paying job, and that would be good for everybody, right? So I just said OK, whatever...
... and I mailed the director of the company. Who said he had never heard of Mark Smit or IT Sourcing, and didn't know of any interview.

Mark eventually called them the day after, unsolicited, and said he had a good candidate for a job for them. Needless to say the company director had his fun with Mark. A few hours after that, Mark e-mailed me to say that 'my outspokenness about certain subjects' made him decide to not enter any working relationship with me. Could I have cared less? Nope.

So far for lying recruiter scum.

The Drupal company and the job offer that lasted for one minute

So now I again was in e-mail contact with the owner of a Drupal company. We both were interested in meeting up for a talk once, to see what we could do for each other. So... two days later, after dinner, I got a phonecall. The guy was still in the office and asked if I might have time "right now". So I said "sure, I'll hop on the bike and be there in 15 minutes"

We, plus the second owner of the company, had an excellent chat. They seemed like enthousiastic people, with not only a smooth way of presenting themselves, but also the knowledge and experience to back up all they were saying - and a successful company with a good atmosphere at a nice location. The conversation gave me a posive feeling. This was not officially a job interview, but... I quickly discovered it had the structure of one. After they introduced the company and talked a bit about my abilities, it became apparen that they were really looking for what kind of work I liked, what made me enthousiastic, whether I was really interested in remaining self employed, etc. The owner suddenly proposed a job for me. As a programmer and part 'face toward the community', doing blogs, setting up a 'developer meeting' every now and than, basically partly making sure they were known as "giving back to the community".

They proposed this because I love the way the Drupal world blends professionality with 'community spirit', and I love keeping in touch with that, and I was talking about that.

However, this kinda put me on the spot right there. I had not been planning toward a job offer... and while I would not have told them about my 'internet presence linked with controversial subjects' in a normal job interview, this particular job offer made me feel like I should tell them. I cannot commit to being 'a face for the company' while not telling them about my other stuff. So I just told them. It's the first time I broached the subject with anyone without thinking about it beforehand, without nervousness - I just did because in this situation I felt I suddenly had to. I said "well that sounds really cool, it's what makes me tick, but if you want to use me as a 'presentable face' then there is something I have to tell you about my current internet presence. Because you will have some lowlifes e-mailing you about me".

Which ofcourse put them on the spot, because it was a totally weird and unexpected turn in the conversation. The usual questions about my personal life surfaced and I quickly assured them that this was not the issue at stake here. (No I do not have 'relationships' with minors, I have never done anything 'wrong' and by the way I have never had any problems with boys or their parents, some of whom know about my feelings for kids - or anyone in my daily life. This is just about the opinions I voice, a court case I defended and my ownership of pedofilie.nl, which is respected and appreciated silently by a lot of people, and for which I've never received any negative reactions except from 'dumb haters'.)

But they immediately withdrew the offer. The owner also mentioned twice that they would immediately lose big parthers, among which the sponsorship of SOS Kinderdorpen, if it came out that I worked there. I seriously doubt that that is true, and it may just be a nice excuse to not think further and get rid of a loaded subject. But hey, I respect their concern since I have no proof to the contrary. And I can't blame them for wanting to not associate themselves with me (like the rest of the world does). At least they were still civil and receptive to the story ... at least to the point of "wow, that's quite a story there, really too bad, I wish it had been another way, but we're just not going to hire you in that case."

Still, this is a first for me. This has been the first 'job interview'2 where I was told face to face that people would not hire me, because of my internet presence.

Making a living and being honest is, even among essentially cool people, harder than I had thought.

• 1. The relationship that grew out of this (after I personally contacted the company to verify whether Floris was speaking the truth) still continues productively, by the way. This indicates that lying recruiter scum can actually be useful to get me off my indecisive ass. I would very probably have contacted this company myself, but Floris sped up the process and I'm happy about that.
• 2. I haven't had that many interviews, since I am still aiming to keep my independent status as a one-man company.