Internet Jobs, Online Safety, And You!

The security breach at a major online job board last year may have made you a little hesitant to put your resume into online databases for fear that your contact information will be used for money-making purposes such as direct mail or email marketing or even identity theft. However, there are security measures you can take that will make your online job search for Internet jobs more secure.

There's always the option of just not putting your resume on the Internet at all, but that's going to saddle you with a pretty large disadvantage in that recruiters that use the internet to find candidates won't be able to find you! Instead, you will have to proactively monitor many different job boards, looking for companies that are looking for you. It's a lot easier to find candidates for a recruiter when they can search through online databases looking for skill sets that match yours and contacting you about unadvertised job openings. If the case is that you want to be easy to find, you'll have to post your resume, so how can you do that and ensure that the boards you post to are legitimate and have precautions in place to ensure the safety of your information?

A good rule of thumb is don't post your resume anywhere that you're not confident about. Trust your instincts. When you do decide to post your resume to a job board, make sure you read their privacy policy carefully. They may resell your resume or access to it, and you need to make sure that their affiliate websites and clients also have privacy policies that you can live with. You might even want to set up an employer account so that you can check the boards' employer guidelines for searching resumes, too. At the end of the day, the best way to get the information you need is to email or call the job board and request it- they want your resume, as it's how they make money, so they will do their best to accommodate you in most cases.

Once you've done your research and are confident that the boards' privacy policy is sufficient, you must be careful when applying during your internet jobs search and replying to emails. Job boards do a lot to ensure that only valid jobs are posted but it's impossible to monitor every job manually, and inevitably, some jobs will make it "past the filters". So what does this mean for you? It means that you have to be vigilant, and keep a jaded eye out for fishy emails or jobs that sound too good to be true, because as the adage says, it probably isn't true. Under no circumstance should you ever give your vital personal information such as your bank account number or Social Security number. A job board or an employer will never ask for that information via email, and this fact is usually stated explicitly in their privacy policies.

If you do get such an email and know which job board the person found your resume and got your contact information from, it is in everyone's best interest for you to notify the job board with as much information about the scam and person emailing you as possible. You can do the same if you see a fraudulent looking posting. The more aware job boards and the Internet community are of scammers, the more they can help prevent them from scamming you and others.

By knowing where your resume is posted, doing your due diligence in regards to security measures and keeping an eye out for fraud, you can help keep yourself and your personal information safe while conducting a search for Internet jobs.