In the early days of digital job hunting, many job seekers’ biggest concern was whether their current employers would get wind of what they were doing. But identity theft and fraud have entered the mix in recent years.
Some experts’ first piece of advice is to avoid openly posting their resumes job boards. “It’s hunting season, and you are the game,” says one privacy analyst.
A safer alternative is to apply directly to employers throughout their company Web sites or, if possible, by sending your resume via email to the hiring manager for the position
These days, with the ease of identity theft, it’s also a bad idea to include your home address on your resume. Consider renting a post office box for the duration of your search. You can also get a temporary cell phone number and email address dedicated to your job search. You don’t want to give up information that you’ll later regret passing along, such as your Social Security number.
On the flip side, by making your job search too private, you could inadvertently limit your exposure to legitimate sources for potential jobs.
One way around this problem is to take advantage of the privacy features that many job sites offer. On Monster.com, for example, users can limit the amount of exposure their resumes receive to just TK to TK. They can also hide certain identifying information, such as their name, contact information and current employer. If they do, employers can only contact those job seekers through a confidential Monster email address.
It’s also important to consider your level of privacy on sites other than just job boards. With the explosion of social media like Facebook and Twitter comes a whole new host of challenges to the digital job search. If you have public profiles on these or other sites, make sure they don’t feature any content that might offend or alienate a potential employer.