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The
life of an email is astounding. Get a good joke going and it can easily
spread to millions of people within 24 hours. Virus hacks take advantage of
this phenomenon to use email as a main carrier of their insidious work. Job
seekers tend to forget this phenomenon when they are going about an
Internet-based job search and are amazed when they get calls and email out
of the blue.
Rule
#1 in any Internet communications – NOTHING IS PRIVATE
That
said, what can you do to preserve your privacy? There are several things
that can be done to keep your personal information as private as possible
without sabotaging the effects of your job search efforts.
Make
your résumé confidential – We do not recommend that you NOT include
your name, but you can keep your other contact information fairly private.
Here’s how:
1.
Set up a separate voice mail and email account just for the purposes of your
job search. A great, free way to do this is to use Onebox.com (http://www.onebox.com).
Set up a voice mail stop and an email account specifically for your job
search. Use this phone number and email on your résumé and in all job
search activities. When the job search is over and you are happily ensconced
in your new job, cancel the account. Remember to check your voice mail on a
daily, if not more frequent, basis so you will not miss opportunities.
2.
Do NOT include your street address on your documents. Employers do not need
your street address during the interview process except to send a
“thank-you-we-have-your-résumé-on-file” postcard (and most don’t
even bother to do that anymore). DO include the city and state in which you
live. Recruiters need to know where you are so they can take time zones into
consideration when attempting to reach you and in consideration for a
relocation. Eliminating your street address also protects your family. In
today’s crazy world, you never know who will be a stalker. If you feel
strongly that you need a mailing address on the résumé, get a Post Office
box or a mail box at the local MailBoxes, Etc. or similar establishment.
By
keeping your home phone number, your home address, and your permanent email
address OFF your résumé, you are doing the most you can to preserve your
privacy. Whenever you email your résumé to a person, whether it is a
recruiter, an employer, a friend, or whoever – you are giving up some of
your privacy. There is no guarantee that your résumé will stop at the
addressee’s computer.
Privacy
on job boards
If
you list your résumé in one database on the Internet, it WILL be
downloaded by other job boards to their databases as a common practice. Your
résumé will be open fodder to millions by listing it on the Internet. This
can be a good thing – it’s networking to the power of 10. It can also be
a pain in the neck when you continue to receive calls 8 months after finding
a new job. Using a temporary voicemail and email will help alleviate this
problem.
Be
sure to cancel or delete your résumé from the job boards to which you
posted when you accept a new offer. Do not trust the job boards to do it for
you.
Keeping
your current employer from knowing your intentions
What
can you do to keep your current employer from finding your résumé on the
Internet? Not a great deal. You can eliminate the name of your current
employer from your résumé to keep your employer from turning your résumé
up on a keyword search using the company name. For example, if you work for
IBM, replace the name of the company with something like “global leader in
information technology products and services based in Research Triangle
Park”. Unfortunately, this also eliminates recruiters from competing
companies who are searching for the cream of the crop from their
competitors’ ranks (headhunting).
What
does RezAMAZE.com suggest? Take the risk and keep the name of your current
employer in there. If someone from HR turns up at your desk and asks what
your intentions are, you can always say you were just fishing to see what
would happen. The average IT pro changes jobs every 18 months so it won’t
be an unusual event.
In
summary, have a preventive mind set toward protecting your privacy when
going about your job search. Keep your home contact info and your office
contact info out of the game altogether by using a separate contact method
that is specifically for the job search. Know the risks when you upload your
résumé to the job boards and be prepared for the reality of spam, calls,
and junk mail that will result. Be pleasantly surprised if you get an
inquiring call from an employer rather than angry that your résumé was
forwarded by someone you don’t know. Take advantage of the great power of
networking that the Internet offers and be ready to handle the volume of
response. The Internet is a powerful means of communication and can be a
great way to network into a new job if you handle it correctly!
Copyright,
2002. RezAMAZE.com
Tracy
Bumpus, CPRW, JCTC is Executive Director of RezAMAZE.com, a career services
firm that specializes in working with professionals in the high tech and
engineering industries. Mrs. Bumpus has been published in six national
bestselling job search books and has written for the National Business
Employment Weekly and Contract Professional. Mrs. Bumpus can be contacted
through her website at http://www.rezamaze.com
or via email at tbumpus@rezamaze.com.
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