[cancelled]

Thanks to all for the advice. I think contract work + changing my name is really the only way forward. I was naive in thinking I could get it all back somehow, and I have been too disillusioned to see the obvious through this whole ordeal.

[cronix]

Next you'll have to explain why when your name is googled, nothing comes up.

[CodeGlitch]

> Next you'll have to explain why when your name is googled, nothing comes up.

If you were to Google my real name, nothing would come up that is related to me. Since the 90's I've been careful not to use my real name or images of me on the internet.

I'm sure plenty of people are like this?

[cronix]

I said what I said due to experience, which I probably should have clarified. I, too, have almost no internet presence under my real name. It has come up in interviews. I didn't say it prevented me from obtaining employment, but it came up is all. In this day and age, it is an outlier to have no social media/internet presence, even though I'm sure "plenty" do (which is small relative compared to the working tech population at-large).

[elil17]

Or just make a new LinkedIn. Not everyone has a bunch of content published about them. Alternatively, choose a common name and get lost in a crowd of people with your name who are more famous than you.

[seattle_spring]

I seriously doubt that would be a problem OP would face, except maybe for an errant employer they wouldn't want to work for anyway.