Performing a confidential job search

Avoid getting stung with these tech-oriented tips

With companies tightening their belts and layoffs on the rise, now is not a great time to let your employer know you’re looking for a new position. During tight economic times, employees involved in publicized position searches are often the first to be let go when companies cut personnel. The old saying is true, "It’s easier to find a job when you already have one," so use the following tips to keep your job search below radar.

Perhaps one of the easiest ways to alert your employer you’re in the market for a job is by posting your resume to job boards. A fact not well known to job seekers is by posting your resume on one job board – even if you think you are doing so in confidentially –Internet spiders and mutual marketing agreements can cause your resume to appear on several, even dozens, of other job boards.

Your employer, especially if a large outfit, has a good chance of spotting your resume online. Company HR staffs typically have agreements with several job boards whereby HR pros pull down resumes by the hundreds. Is having your online resume spotted by your employer such a big deal? Yes; conventional wisdom and common courtesy hold employees should not be marketing themselves elsewhere, while pledging loyalty to their present employers. To really be considered "above board," a candidate should inform his or her boss of the impending job search before beginning. In reality this is foolish for several reasons, including risking being fired on the spot. Hiring managers often take departures personally, so it’s best to have a secure position when you tender your resignation notice.

Besides the chance of having your own HR department pull your resume from one of hundreds of job boards – boards you may not have even posted to – hiring managers are increasingly in the habit of searching job boards for resumes of their own employees. Company attempts to gauge employee loyalty are making private job searches all the more difficult, so be aware this practice goes on, and is on the rise in corporate America.

If you choose to post your resume online, consider using a small niche site specifically for your area of expertise. Using your first name’s initials and last name, and providing only your phone number, are ways to increase the privacy of your information online. Safer still than posting to a job board, large or small, is to respond directly to position openings you see posted. This way, companies only get your resume when you send it to them.

Consider this: Many companies throw out resumes if they receive them twice. The logic is, if you are "desperate" enough to have your resume arrive there twice, how many other databases must your information be in? If you are in so many databases, there’s a good chance other companies will call you in attempts to lure you away from this new employer. This gives you a low score on candidate quality scale, and certainly hurts your leverage for negotiations, should the company contact you about a position. Some companies’ disdain for widely-posted resumes borders on militant. Recently a large, well-known company was in the middle of a round of mass-hiring. The company explained to a recruiter it would not hire candidates with resumes posted to job boards for several reasons including:

• Most people who post their resumes to a job board are someone else’s cast-offs. Why else would anyone who is gainfully employed advertise their availability for their boss to see?

• These people were called politically and technologically ignorant because they have no control over who sees their resume. They’ve made their names available to every advertising, telemarketing and Internet spam generator in the world.

• They are becoming easy targets for identity theft – not only are their names and addresses readily available, but so is their entire work history. Identity theft is expected to increase 200 times during the next year, and this company viewed candidates willing to take this risk as not being the brightest prospects out there.

• The company perceived these candidates as "desperate" because statistically, only about 4% of candidates find new positions through job boards.

• The company felt those individuals who posted their resumes and waited to be found – had no real initiative. They weren’t out actively networking.

These reasons come straight from a prominent employer’s mouth, so this indictment of candidates relying on job boards should prompt all job seekers to stop and reconsider their tactics. Candidates wishing to use recruiters as personal career advocates also should be aware that posting their resumes to job boards is a good way to sour the candidate/recruiter relationship.

Recruiters are paid to find quality, employed candidates – the ones who don’t appear desperate by posting their resume everywhere. Recruiters have been embarrassed by presenting candidates to companies, only to learn those candidates were already in the company’s database, acquired from one of the hundreds of job boards out there. The company then gets angry with the recruiter for submitting a candidate who’s been "mass marketed," and the recruiter is rightly upset with the candidate for wasting everyone’s time.

And if you’re in one database or job board bank, recruiters know you are likely in several, even dozens. This gives recruiters little incentive to work for you.

Also, most resume screeners review each page in seconds, looking for reasons to screen candidates out, not in. So if you’ve sent a less-than-perfect resume to one or more job boards, this imperfect resume might now have been reviewed by several companies, all who have labeled you as a second-tier candidate. If you do post your resume to a job board, consider having it reviewed by trusted peers or experienced hiring experts such as recruiters.

The Internet has made job searches far simpler for today’s job seeker. But technology is a double-edged sword, so approaching your use of online job search tools with common sense will help ensure your search isn’t discovered and your career growth stays on track.

Char Turczyn
CMW & Associates
IL7001