Electronic Job Posting

Posting your resume on an Internet employment search site is an everyday part of online job-hunting.

In the opinion of Dr. Jerry, out of the five ways to seek employment this process lands at the bottom on the list because of the dangers of identity theft.

That is not to say that Dr. Jerry opposes posting of your data to electronic boards – just that you need to be wary of the risks and be ready to handle all the calls about medical insurance – for spahammers (misspelled  intentionally) farm lists just like real estate sales people farm a neighborhood.

The information you give about yourself can be used by crooks as well as potential employers.

The purpose of this article, is for Dr. Jerry to identify the risks and explains how to make online resume posting safer.

These days, with exceptionally high unemployment (and high underemployment), most people consider online job-hunting a very big part of the search process.

And to give themselves the best chance of success, many job seekers post their resume on one or more of the scores of Internet job search sites.

This makes sense if you believe that the wider you cast the net, the more likely you are to land a good catch, but promoting yourself online does pose a risk of identity theft, spahamming (misspelled intentionally) and other scams.

Get yourself a spam verifier software program (many are free and one of the best is http://www.scambusters.org/ and don’t be fooled by tricky new jobs or work at home scams. Especially those relating to “Financial Representative” opportunities – where you get a commission on funds collected (laundered).

You can take steps to reduce that risk, while still keeping your chances high of being “discovered” by a potential new employer.

In this article Dr. Jerry focuses specifically on resume security. A good starting point for guidance regarding resume security is the US Office of Personnel Management, which looks after recruitment for the Federal Government.

You can post your resume there for free, but even here the site warns users to be “mindful about the type of information you include on your resume,” advising against detailing personal information like your National Identification and driver’s license numbers, financial account information, passwords and birth dates.

But you also get a number of extra security options, which likely you also will see increasingly on other, non-Government job search sites.

Resume privacy options

The most “open” option for online job hunting is the public resume, which allows all potential employers to see all the details you posted including contact information. And it’s the one Dr. Jerry does not recommend.

By contrast, a well-developed professional resume included a great deal of your personal details, like contact information, your current employer and the type of opportunity you seek. Contact with you comes directly, via either a telephone call scheduling a face-to-face or telephonic interview and not an email requesting more information from the online job-hunting site.

Other job search sites may also allow additional privacy options.

One feature many online job-hunting sites have in common is a claim that your resume cannot be seen by other job seekers, only by employers.

The validity of that claim, however, rests on how effective a particular search site is at confirming the authenticity of those who say they’re employers, so you shouldn’t let that influence how much information you give away.

One non-profit firm, for example, suggests that law firms and private detectives use online job-hunting sites to track down people they wish to subpoena.

No matter where you post, your resume will attract a number of online job scams.

These might include bogus jobs, where the scammer wants your details for identity theft or to charge a fee for a supposed security check.

Other search sites will also contact you trying to get you to post with them, or you’ll hear from dubious agents offering to find you a job for a finder’s fee.

At this stage, you should certainly never respond by disclosing any confidential information until you have thoroughly checked out a supposed employer.

Be especially wary of anything that involves a money request. Legitimate employers simply don’t do this.

Likewise, be aware that any details you’ve made publicly available about yourself are now in the public domain for after you’ve posted your resume openly, you have almost no control over how it will be used.

4 tips for resume posting on online job-hunting sites

Here are 5 important tips to reduce the risk that your online resume will be of any value to crooks:

1. Check out any online job-hunting site you’re thinking of using; do a search to establish their reputation.

2. Study the site’s privacy policy to see how they will use your information, how they safeguard it and what happens when you delete it and if you can’t delete it, don’t post it. Likewise, if there’s no privacy policy, ditch it.

3. Establish how they vet potential employers. See what happens if you try to register as an employer yourself.

4. Use a “spare” or temporary email address for initial contact; that way you won’t fall prey to spahammers. Understand that most legitimate employers conduct interviews over the telephone or in a face-to-face meeting and if the only contact you can make with a potential employer is via email, then suspect fraud.

Although you naturally want to do everything you can to impress a potential employer, the bottom line is this: If you can make your resume impressive, you probably won’t have hampered your chances of getting an interview but you will have protected your identity.

One additional point to be wary about:

Phony résumé writing services:

Many individuals now use professional résumé writers to get a resume prepared.  All of the good ones have the following qualities:

1. They’ve been in  business a long time; and
2. A person can be reached by a telephone number; and
3. The professional that writes the resume is the same person that conducts the interview to gather necessary data to enhance your résumé; and
4. Those firms that are genuine, offer a pledge of total security and use a well known payment processing firm (such as PayPal) to collect credit card data.

However, since no one, can guarantee 100% security you should be aware that when your personal data is anywhere in the “cloud” — that is, on someone else’s server — it’s potentially vulnerable, even if the risk is miniscule.

Second, identity thieves could use a phony resume writing service to collect your personal details (though Dr. Jerry has no evidence of any doing this at the moment).

So, just be careful. Again, check out any service by doing a “Google” search on their name, and read their privacy policy carefully.

In these days of economic turbulence, it is natural to want to do as much as you can do to find the best job.

By using commonsense caution, you’ll be making the most of your online job-hunting, without compromising your security or leaving yourself open to identity theft.

A lot of people believe that posting a resume online does not require having a paper resume – BIG mistake.

Honestly, style trumps substance and design-rich, formatting, and crisp writing will always fair better than basic words on paper.

No need to get carried away with color, links, and fancy fonts – the objective is still to convey a clear and easy to understand message about why you are the best candidate ever for the open position.

Boring biographies (like those of just a few years ago, appear aged and perform far, far, worse than a carefully crafted success story.

In today’s environment of emailing and online posting of data, many in the industry have recommended cutting down on the amount of personal contact information and many are currently recommending that individuals not include their home address on their resume.

The idea has some merit but the danger is that a reader of such a document might conclude that the candidate is living out of his or her car, not the stability desired by an employer.

To add to the confusion of including addresses, is the simply fact that hardly anyone writes to anyone today.  Most contact is by telephone and I recommend including only a single telephone number on the resume (not two) and not including a fax number either.

Each individual must make a decision on including their mailing address and what telephone number to include.  I would recommend including a mailing address and just one telephone number. Since including multiple telephone numbers (or multiple email addresses) just forces readers to choose how to contact you.

The odds are 50-50 that you will get an interview if your résumé actually gets to the desk of the hiring authority (or back if it starts there). However, the odds are only 1 in 5 that you will be offered the job after the interview. The interview is not designed to determine if you are ‘qualified’ – you would not have gotten the interview if you were not qualified – but the interview is to determine if the hiring authority and others ‘like’ you the best.

So with only a 1 in 5 change of getting the job you interview, the odds are not in your favor and you may be rejected.

Big deal (of course it is at the time) but talk to anyone successful and listen to their stories about their failures. Each failure is an opportunity to learn and grow.

Here the simple answer is “never.” Having multiple résumés in circulation, each with different facts, only confirms suspicions that you are lying and will say anything to get a job. Multiple versions of résumés have a weird way of showing up on the same desk at the same time.

If you must make a change – try adding a PS to the cover letter saying something like: “I just wanted to note that I am an avid tennis player” but only if the ad suggests something like “…tennis players preferred…”

The simple answer is NO. Some firms without scruples will sell you anything they think you will buy, but a true professional with sell you one résumé, written properly, so that you can apply for any position you are qualified for – with, perhaps, change a single line or covering special issues within your cover letter.

There are plenty of jobs available – but only those who look hard and work hard are getting them.

First:  Have a great résumé.  With 95% of all résumés in circulation poorly written or poorly constructed, those few that are well done actually stand out and move quickly to the top of the pile.

Second:  Quit watching TV or playing with your toys.  If you spend 8 hours per day looking for work or responding to advertisements, you will get interviews and if you get interviews, you will likely get a job offer.

Third:  Just remember that employers know nothing about you until they see your résumé – heck, they don’t even know you are available.  With just 10 to 20 seconds to make a great impression, you can easily see why others (perhaps others less qualified) are getting interviews and you are not.

Fourth:  Read your résumé out loud to family or friends.  If they are not impressed, then it is likely that an employer will not be impressed.

Summary:  It is amazing how hard work brings good luck.

Dr. Jerry

719.447.1147

In this era of multi-tasking workers, smart phones, texting, and personal networking – is it any wonder that what was ‘normal’ for a résumé yesterday is ‘old school’ today?

With about 15% of the population either unemployed or running out of benefits or financial resources, the need to fight for attention today is the greatest it has ever been.  In life, style trumps substance.  With a résumé you’ve got to look great as well as sound great.  But that does not mean violating EEOA rules by including a photograph of yourself on your résumé or wasting time and a good deal of money on verbal résumés – frankly, the audience is still those who read documents.

Respect their time by making your résumé not only short and factual, but be certain that your résumé is not some cookie-cutter from a template.

Content must always be short and tight – much like Joe Friday and his great line “Just the facts, please.”

Engineer that write like engineers or IT professionals that can’t write without a long list of acronyms or other such gibberish are shooting themselves in the foot every time they send out a poorly constructed résumé for the résumé of today is not the old work history or biography of yesterday – they must be a marketing tool.

Look at the ads in the newspaper that grab your attention.  Its not the words that work, it is the white space.

The world is full of phony resume schemes, all designed to make the seller money and pretend to help the client, for example:

“How to write a resume in minutes.” – Sorry, but the typical professional needs about 4 hours to do a good job with a draft.  All you would get “in minutes” is a boiler-plate document that would look and read like almost every other resume in circulation.  How are you going to stand out if you look like everyone else?

“Great Cover(ing) Letters”  - A cover letter from a book is not you, only a professional who understands who you are – hopefully from a telephone interview and not some silly ‘questionnaire’ – can write a cover letter that collect introduces YOUR resume.

“$20, $30, $40, $50, $60…resumes.” Of course that is possible – when someone is sitting at home and just copying from a list of occupations.  While you would not got to a bargain ‘brain surgeon,’  you should not go to a bargain typist to have your resume created.

A good resume will cost between $100 and $200. A high price does not mean higher value – just higher marketing costs.

Good resume writers have up to 20 years of experience and have worked with people from all walks of life.

Give your resume writer these tests:

1.  How long have you, personally, been in the resume writing business?

2.  How many resumes have you, personally, written?

3.  Have you ever worked with someone in the (insert your industry here) field?

4.  What are some of the key elements to working with someone in the (insert your industry here) field?

5.  Are you the person who will do the interview?

6.  Are you the person will write the resume?

7.  Do you charge extra for multiple pages?  (Note:  many that recommend 2-page resumes actually charge for the second page.)

8.  Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Professional Association of Resume Writers? (Doesn’t prove anything except a desire to appear professional)

9.  Do you hold any Resume credentials (CPRW or CPCC)? Shows a dedication towards professionalism in the career field.

10. What are your academic credentials?

11.  What else qualifies you to write my resume?

12.  What was your most interesting assignment?