Job Boards that offer resume searches are no good

Posted on October 5, 2006
Filed Under Employment Websites, Resume Searches |

We have long believed that job boards that offer resume searching for the employer are no good. As a matter of fact, it was in 1996 that I first made an internal policy that we would never allow any level of resume searching. Fortunately, we have held true to that policy since.

We established this policy for three major reasons:

1. We felt that it encouraged local level recruiting, which is not healthy for a fast growth, skill lacking community like Las Vegas. Employers would soon purchase resume database access and establish search agents just to ‘fish’ resumes of candidates applying for a job at one of their competitors.

2. It would violate the privacy of the jobseeker. If a jobseeker wants to apply for a job, he or she can. Just like the newspaper – send an applicant.

3. It would create major opportunities for identity thieves. Think about it – a resume has more private information on it than any credit card solicitation received in the mail. A resume will give an identity thief everything!

Well, finally, one of our once-thought-of conspiracy theories has proven to be true. Recently the World Privacy Forum conducted a study. The study validated our reasoning for establishing such a ‘no resume search policy.

The Forum submitted hundreds of résumés to various job sites and tracked them for a year. Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, said many were stolen by either criminals or unethical recruiters.

It was found that a résumé history can be combined with a Social Security number, giving an identity thief virtually the entire life history of someone, resulting in identity theft. “The more detailed your résumé, the easier it is to do,” Ms. Dixon said.

Many job seekers who posted their resumes online reported that they also had problems with employment consultants seeking to solicit business and aggressive recruiters calling them with job solicitations they were not looking for. After arranging interviews, some consultants made a pitch for their services, some costing as much as $10,000.

So…… it is verified – we were correct in our gut feeling in 1996 and it still holds true today.