Power Your Job Search With the Internet: Privacy vs. Exposure, Safety and Risk
By Lisette Hilton
Marysville, WA - May 16, 2003-- Job seeker Rob Wald was
so concerned about privacy and maintaining control over who would
see his resume on the Web that he decided not to post with Internet
businesses, such as the big job boards. Instead, he created his
own Web site, which gives those he directs to it all the information
they need to determine his qualifications. While Wald, who is
looking for a technology marketing job, hasn’t landed employment
yet, he’s convinced that having a Web site will help his
endeavor without his having to pay the privacy price of posting
with job boards, employment agencies and other businesses.
Although Wald’s decision is based on a reasonable concern
-- loss of privacy -- it is a mistake to believe that posting
a resume on your own Web site is “safe,” says President
and CEO of MedZilla.com, Frank Heasley, PhD. MedZilla.com is a
leading Internet recruitment and professional community that serves
biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, healthcare and science. "Many
people don’t realize that anything you post on the Web is
there for all the world to see unless there are privacy protections
in place. If you’re concerned about privacy, you shouldn't
expose your resume through anything but a controlled environment.
And even then, you shouldn't include personal information like
a social security number. A good rule of thumb is not to post
anything you wouldn’t post on the bulletin board of a big
city’s subway station.”
The Internet is the single, most powerful job search method ever
developed, but there is a lot of misunderstanding about how best
to use it, Dr. Heasley says. Luckily, there are many common sense
things that you can do to help protect your privacy, without losing
the benefit of exposure to qualified employers.
Risks vs Rewards: Finding Your Place on the Curve
According to Dr. Heasley, determining the risks versus rewards
of posting a resume on the Web starts with thinking about the
bell-shaped curve from zero exposure and no risk at all to 100%
exposure and maximum risk. Your chances of finding a job are minimum
at both ends of that curve. For example, for the least possible
risk, you wouldn't tell anyone you’re even looking and no
one would consider the possibility that you’d like to find
a new position. At the other end of the curve ("maximum exposure"),
you would basically wallpaper the street with your resume, posting
it on every credible and non-credible site that promises to land
you a job. Clearly, for a successful search, meaning that you
land a great job with as little heartache as possible -- you need
to find your comfort zone somewhere in the middle of the curve.
“You need to strike a balance based on how comfortable
you are with posting your information and where you are with regard
to your career and your standing with your company,” he says.
“Wherever you are on the curve, however, you need to know
how to target the right employers, while maintaining as much privacy
as possible.”
The Basics of Web-Posting Success
Wendy Carr, regional market resources consultant with Right Management
Consultants, a worldwide career transition and organizational
consulting firm, offers several tips for safe, effective posting:
Go to Yahoo! and set up a free email account for your job search.
That way you can keep your job search emails separate from your
non-job search emails. And keep your email address professional.
Email addresses like “imsogood” or “biggal”
won’t be taken seriously.
Don’t “spray and pray.” In other words, don’t
paper the Internet with your resume. There are services that will
email your resume to hundreds of companies and recruiters in their
database for less than a $100. No database is ever 100% current,
so you risk your resume going to companies or recruiters who aren’t
relevant to your job campaign. Not to mention, your job search
is no longer focused and targeted, and you have no way of following
up with all of these organizations. This is especially important
after you’ve landed a job and need to remove your resume
from wherever it’s been posted. You also risk overexposing
yourself.
Try one or two of the major sites… but be sure to also use
any niche job sites in your field.
Many of the job sites offer personal search agents, which identify
the jobs that meet your profile, and save you time. Look for the
online job boards that use these agents that allow you to save
your search criteria and then automatically email you the jobs
that fit your profile.
Remember that once you post your resume online, you become fair
game. You may be contacted by organizations you have no desire
to talk with. Leave off your home address and phone number. However,
key components to provide potential employers with are an email
address, city and state.
Walk away from your computer and NETWORK. Don’t spend more
than 15%-25% of your time looking for a job online. The traditional
side of job search -- that is, networking -- hasn’t changed
and is still the number one way that folks land jobs. Get out
there and talk to people at professional networking meetings,
etc.
Dr. Heasley adds that some job boards should be avoided entirely.
Candidates should avoid fly-by night-job boards, boards that give
away access to their resume databases for free, and "blaster
services" that offer to post your resumes to thousands of
job boards and recruiters.
One way to check a job board is to go to www.alexa.com and run
a search on their domain name. “Check for traffic details,
when the board got started, and any comments or reviews about
them” Dr. Heasley says. “Another way to check on a board’s
credibility is to go to www.archive.org. A search for the Web
site will reveal when it got up and running. I wouldn’t trust
any board that hasn’t been in business for at least two years.”
If you are concerned about privacy, stay with job boards that
restrict resume access to paying clients with real jobs to fill
-- not just anyone who wants a "free trial." And, if
anybody tries to sell you a "blaster" service, look
elsewhere. The last thing you need is to pay someone to splatter
your private data all over the Internet. “If you use the
Web the right way, combined with personal networking and other
strategies, you will find a new position that is the kind of job
you want in the least time necessary, without putting yourself
unduly at risk,” he says.
