using confidential resume posting? read this caution

by Alison Green on October 20, 2010

My friend Kat, who’s doing some I.T. recruiting, offers up this PSA about a common mistake people make when posting confidential resumes on online job boards:

The omission of people’s city, state and zip in a confidential resume means that they are not searchable once entered into a database. I understand that people like to post confidentially on job boards as there is a means for confidential return communication, but once that resume gets into some other ogranization’s hand, it is useless without contact info. And more often than not (maybe 75% or more of the time), their resumes are being farmed out elsewhere from the job boards, and are therefore useless without personal information.

I don’t care if I have your last name, or even your phone number (although it is certainly desired). What I need is at least a first name, city, state, zip and current email address. If there is no zip code available, the candidate will not get searched in our database for future matches.

Perhaps the most frequent mistake I see made is people who put their address and phone on their resume but don’t put their email address, not realizing that their resume document may get separated from their original submission email or their job board resume entry. Resumes always always get detached from emails or job boards for review, so you shouldn’t omit an email address on the actual resume.

I’ve never recruited from job boards, so this is useful information to have. On a similar note, I’ve received resumes sent directly to me without containing any contact info, just a name, which is also strange. So today’s message:  Contact info — use it.

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{ 9 comments }

{ 9 comments… read them below }

  1. Anonymous*

    It's also important to note that 'confidential' resume postings are meaningless if you're identifiable by your experience.

    Presumably, most people post confidentially so their employers won't see that they're looking. Unfortunately, if a company *does* care to look in a job board to see which of their employees are antsy, they're looking for people who mention the company name.

    IME, most people posting namelessly do mention their employers by name, and even if the job seeker omits the current employer's name, previous employers are sitting there like a big ol' neon sign.

    So, 'confidential' is kinda meaningless in this context.

  2. majigail*

    I have a google alert set up for our company's name and once it popped up a current staff member's recent resume on a job board. It wasn't confidential, but I don't think he would have expected me to find it. It was an awkward next couple of months…

  3. Dave C*

    On the flip side, I never give an editable version of my resume to recruiters anymore. Many of them want to strip out my name and contact info so the can be sure the hiring company and me don't bypass them (and their crazy fees) should I take the job.

    I feel that if a recruiting company is insecure enough and hasn't built a proper business relationship of trust with the company they are working for, then that's exactly the kind of recruiter I don't want to be dealing with.

    Actually at this point I simply don't engage with 3rd party recruiters that I don't know personally. I've been burned too many times.

  4. FrauTech*

    I don't post my address on my resume on job boards because i don't want just anyone who convinced Monster that they are a "company" to find my personal, home address. I'm not trying to keep it confidential, I'm trying to keep my name separate from my address from people who I don't know.

    And so I understand correctly, your friend, who works in IT, has a database that requires a zip code, city and state? That sounds like a limit to the database, not something wrong with the candidates applying. I hope that's nobody in MY IT department.

  5. Jill*

    I've had to strip my phone number from my resume present on monster, as I've had too many scam calls since it was posted. These calls are from people who "would love to hire me for a consulting position", but they need my social security number, a fee paid, a credit card number, etc. After the eighth one and a fellow who couldn't say "technologist" correctly, I pulled the phone number.

    I'd suggest that anyone in the job market get themselves a google voice phone number and use it for everything they send out with their resume – you have have it ring to your cell, your home, anywhere… If it is set to show the google number on the caller id, you will know automatically if it is job search related.

  6. Kat*

    @ FrauTech: It is neither a limit to, or requirement of the database. Many jobs require local candidates, and regardless, we look for local candidates first. If I don't have a zip code for you, then I can't include you in that search for candidates local to job. It IS a flaw of our database that proximity searches must be done by zip code, and not by state as an alternative.

    @ Jill – I complete agree with the Google Voice for phone. I wouldn't want to include my phone number either, but people often change their email addresses and forget to update them on job boards and with recruiters they have willingly partnered with.

  7. Anonymous*

    I'd rather miss a job opportunity, than expose myself to the nefarious intentions of everyone on the internet. And if an employer can't figure out a way to keep better track of the online resumes they download, well…their loss.

  9. Anonymous*

    PRIVACY IS IMPORTANT! If recruiters cannot take a moment to e-mail someone (time spent is the same as a phone call) so then THEIR LOSS. I NEVER INCLUDE MY COMPLETE ADDRESS OR PHONE NUMBER but i do include a note that i will disclose phone and complete address upon request.

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