Bite of Advice: Lose the "confidential resume"

Posted Dec 17 2008 7:47 AM by Gretchen Ledgard
  The Suggestion Kitty says …

 

When posting your resume on a job board (Monster, Dice, Hot Jobs, etc), do not post it as “confidential.”  Either include your name  … or don’t post your resume out there at all.  Keeping your resume as "confidential" may decrease your chances of being contacted for a job.

 

On the back-end, recruiters do reverse look-ups in our own in-house databases to see if the applicant is already in there or already interviewed, but if you don’t include a name, you make that task difficult or impossbile.  And consequently, we may move on to the next resume.  I definitely will.


If you are truly, truly worried about people at your current company spying on you (b/c I assume that’s why people keep their resumes confidential), just don’t post it.  Apply directly to jobs of interest … with your real name.

 

Two more quick thoughts: 

  • Even if you keep your resume confidential, if someone wants to find you, they can.  It’s not that hard to figure out who is who based on resumes and key word search functionality. 
  • If you don’t heed my advice and decide to post a resume confidentially anyway, please remember to remove your name from the body of the resume.  If you want to hide behind anonymity, at least do it right. :)

 Meow!

gretchen

15 Comments

  • Don Demsak said:

    I always suggest that people remove their name address, and phone number on a resume that is open to the public, and replace them with an email address created just for that resume. This way you know that any contact via that email address is from people outside your personal network.





    The reason is not to hide from your employer, but from very unethical recruiting and consulting firms. These firms will submit your resume to potential clients without your approval, and will contact you only after the client is interested. In the meantime, you may have already submitted your resume to the client directly (or thru another party) and now your resume had been submitted twice. Most clients I know will not look at resumes that are submitted twice, just because they don't want to get involved with the hassle of figuring out who submitted the resume first (and all the legal issues).

  • gretchen said:

    Don - Great advise. I like that idea.

  • Jeremy C. Wright said:

    Mine is confidential right now, because I'm not looking for a job. Any offer I got right now'd have to be pretty darn good to take me away from my new company.





    So, yes, it makes it hard. And, yes, people can still find me. But it's confidential so that people (hopefully) realize I'm not actively (or passively, unless I got a great offer on the right team at Microsoft) looking for work.

  • Sahil Malik said:

    I disagree, posting your private information including your real name on publically viewable resumes is simply insane. I generally make my resume public, but keep my resume visible under some silly name.





    Also, I'd go one step further. For mental peace, it is okay to block your real name on your resumes to hide it from your current employer. Nothing wrong with that.





    It is really uncomfortable when your boss walks upto and says "Why are you looking for a job, can we give you a 5-10K more and keep you around". Even worse when a blabby co-worker discovers you out like that (BUSTED !!).





    Corporate recruiters can put up with it IMHO. ... Hey I put up with Sourcesafe .. how bad can it be !!

  • gretchen said:

    This goes back to my point then. Apply to specific postings of interest if you don't want your info out there for all to see. And I love Don's suggestion of just including an email address so that your other contact info isn't out there.

  • Sahil Malik said:

    Gretchen,





    No matter how good you are; these days "applying" doesn't get you anywhere because I guess you are email #281 out of 500 in the first hour.





    But if you put your resume on a site and make it public, the phone doesn't settle down. Bit weird but true.





    I like Don's suggestion too, and thats generally what I do.





    - SM

  • gretchen said:

    Sahil - Yeah, I can believe that. Weird but true.

  • Apoorva Joshi said:

    If one is really good, s/he need not apply. Just make yourself visible on the net and someone from the Microsoft recruiting Team will catch you! Right Gretchen?





    Gretchen: Maybe you might want to add a small update to your article for readers to check out Don's comment. I know many who skip comments but I feel his comment is not worth skipping.

  • Steve No Jobs said:

    By the way, talking about recruiting agencies and consulting firms(there are a few dozen in seattle area alone).





    What is your advice for people regarding using these agencies, should they submit their resume to Microsoft directly and wait, or what should one say to a agency who contact them say "I have some opportunity with Microsoft, would you be interested?"--assume you already submitted your resume to MS already.

  • Confidential said:

    Remember to remove your name (and company name if using employer resources!!) from the document properties, if you are using Word, also ensure that tracking changes is not switched on - otherwise people can still find out who you are!

  • gretchen said:

    Apoorva - No, you should still apply. :) Increase your chances.





    Steve - I actually wrote an entry about this a couple weeks ago: <a target="_new" href="http://blogs.msdn.com/jobsblog/archive/2005/01/18/355767.aspx">http://blogs.msdn.com/jobsblog/archive/2005/01/18/355767.aspx</a>





    Confidential - good point!

  • Nathan said:

    I have everything posted: name, address, phone number... Oddly enough, I don't get any phone calls. Hehe.

  • Martin said:

    napavalleysfsoft3006@yahoo.com

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