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Corporate recruiters work just like Gawker Media (and just like you before a blind date), the New York Times reveals — by sniffing around the MySpace and Facebook profiles of prospective hires. In a sloppily researched article (no, MySpace is not only two years old), the Times checks out how this phenomenon screws perfectly cool people over. Tien Nguyen (pictured) lost interview chances because he was clever. Other kids are getting turned down for having, well, great enthusiasm for their line of work:

Ms. Rose said a recruiter had told her he rejected an applicant after searching the name of the student, a chemical engineering major, on Google. Among the things the recruiter found, she said, was this remark: "I like to blow things up."

That's the smoking gun? A chem student who likes to mess with chemicals? At this rate, young phone hacker Steve Jobs would never get a job. Just as well — if all the interesting people get denied jobs at paranoid, stultifying companies, they'll be free to launch kick-ass startups.

For Some, Online Persona Undermines a Résumé [NYT]