Posted under Resumes on February 13th, 2008
I came across a question posted on a mailing list I receive and I was intrigued with the thread of conversation, as well as, comments from an acquaintence with years of professional experience working with job boards. I wanted to pass it along and encourage you to comment from your own experience.
The question had to do with including a street address and home phone number as contact information across the top of the resume. Several professional resume writers indicated they only include a candidate’s name, city, state, and zip code due to problems with identity theft. There was also concern that HR reps use the address information to screen candidates based on “too long a commute”. Since I include all contact information, and know there are several ways to obtain personal information on the web simply by having a name, I passed this question on to a professional who works with job boards daily in his work with a resume service. His comments follow:
If currently employed and the search is a secret- you obviously post confidentially. Through my [resume] service, you choose confidential and you make sure to strip out anything on the pasted resume and cover letter that can identify you. If not through my service, you be even more careful and cover up anything that can give you away including company names, exact job descriptions as they’re written up by the company you work for, etc. If NOT currently employed - You don’t post confidentially.
It is FACT that those who post confidentially receive less hits. It’s human nature. If you have 5 candidates that look great on paper, and 3 have contact info. attached including a name, and 2 do not, the first three are contacted first. Those who use job boards [professionally] KNOW that recruiters plant “traps” on the boards in the form of confidential candidates. They’re fake candidates planted by the recruiter to create job orders. Hiring authority emails the “confidential searcher” and the next thing you know you hear back from a recruiter saying “Actually, I placed that person but have others just like him/her…lets talk”. Many are skeptical of confidential candidates who look too good to be true. often they are. THAT SAID…it doesn’t mean confidential searchers will not be contacted…just not as much as the non-confidential. The point of using the boards is to maximize your chances of being contacted so unless your search is a secret, I see no reason to post confidentially.
If the job seeker is still not comfortable with it, even if not employed, then I can see them giving a fake street address…but the moment you give a fake phone number, you just eliminated those hiring authorities who are more inclined to pick up the phone and call over email. In a stack of 20 people they like, they simply may not email each one. They’ll call quickly and see if they can schedule an interview. I wouldn’t doctor names or phone numbers if your search is not secret. Maybe you change the company names on the resume to “Confidential” but don’t change phone number and eliminate potential interested parties in reaching you.
Your experiences?
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Susan Joyce on 01 Mar 2008 at 3:27 pm #
Three points:
1.) Many recruiters view a “confidential” job seeker as that most-highly-sought-after candidate, the job seeker who has a good job to protect.
2.) Rather than using “confidential” for a former employer, substitute a description: IBM morphs into “multi-national computer manufacturer” or “Fortune 100 multi-national information services company” or whatever description fits most appropriately in the situation. A recruiter will understand better who the employer is, but an IBM researcher possibly looking for “straying” employees will not find this resume.
3.) No need to use a bogus phone number. I agree that is a bad idea.
However, I would NEVER recommend that an employed job seeker provide their work phone number on a resume. EEK!
Since most cell phone numbers are unlisted (Google the number to be sure!), put the cell phone number on the resume and cover letter.
Let’s be clear, though, use the PERSONAL cell phone number, not the number for an employer-supplied cell phone!
For more information on protecting privacy while job hunting, read the privacy protection articles on my Website - Job-Hunt.org.
Alice on 22 Jul 2008 at 8:46 am #
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.