Web Safe Resumes Overview
It is important to ensure that your resume protects you from identity theft before publishing it to a website, job site, blog by learning how to write a web safe resume. It is very easy to place too much information on your resume for it to be safely circulating the internet. By modifying the content of your resume, you can create your own privacy protection, without depending on anyone else to do it for you.
The following advice is to protect your identity and your current employment. As your resume continues to exist on the internet indefinitely, a web safe resume will continue to protect you.
Just because you have uploaded your resume to a job site that limits resume access to paying employers is no guarantee of privacy. You are far better off developing a web safe resume yourself than relying on a third party to protect you.
Identity thieves have and do purchase access to resume databases, which is why it is important to learn how to write a web safe resume. They pose as potential employers to collect social security numbers and bank account details. Even Monster.com is now warning job seekers that use their service of the dangers.
Some recruiters consider job seekers who protect their identity as more desirable than those who don't. The assumption is that you have an existing job that you are protecting.
However, often a web safe resume may make it more difficult for a recruiter to reach you because of restricted contact information. In any resume, there is a balance between privacy for security, and openness for accessibility. Each person must find their own balance that they are comfortable with.
Web Safe Resume Tips
Limited contact information makes it hard for your identity to be stolen, or for your employer to become aware of your job search. The following tips are a good start toward learning how to write a web safe resume.
Consider Removing
- Your name
- Your address
- Your home or work phone number - Unless it is unlisted, it exposes your home or work address.
- Your work e-mail address - Strongly Advised
- Your personal e-mail address, if it is associated with an online profile.
Replace the contact information with an e-mail address that is harder to trace to you personally, like the Web-based e-mail addresses from Hotmail, Google Gmail or Yahoo.
Consider Changing
- A fun e-mail address (e.g. crazysexybeerdrinker@hotmail.com) by registering a second, more conservative address that you use specifically for job seeking.
- Employment history, especially for your current job, as this will minimize the potential risk to your existing employment - e.g. from Microsoft to Fortune 500 Software Company
- Your job title if unique - e.g. from New York Powerpoint Regional Director to East Coast Presentation Software Director
Never Add
Protect your business associates as well by never listing references directly on your resume. Simply state that references will be provided upon request.
How to Write a Web Safe Resume Summary
Placing a resume on the web is a terrific way to maximize your job-hunting efforts, but don't sacrifice security in exchange for exposure. Take the time to write a web safe resume.
