Tampa Jobs Today Article

Protecting Your Privacy

Protecting your privacy and personal information is important whenever you do anything online, but even more so when putting your resume online as part of an online job search. If you do not adequately protect your privacy in your resume, the risks to your personal information and even your employment prospects are significant.

Why should you care about privacy?

You should care about the privacy and confidentiality of your personal information because the potential for personal and professional damage is considerable. When your personal information is compromised and obtained by people who misuse it, your life can literally be turned upside down.

Most people have heard about the tremendous damage done by identity theft, such as damaged credit, loss of money, and literally years of time and effort to correct misuse. Fewer people are aware of the professional damage that can be done, though, if your personal information is misused during your online job search.

One of the most obvious issues is what happens if your current employer finds out you are actively looking for another job. This can happen easily if you include too much personal information on and internet resume and that resume is widely distributed by some job search sites. It can also happen, though, if you include too much specific information about your current employer or job title, if that information makes it easy to identify you as the job seeker.

Some employers have a very strong reaction to existing employees searching for a new job. They may view this as being disloyal, or as too distracting from focus on job performance. The result can be a very uncomfortable situation for both you and your employer, often leading to unpleasant feelings on both sides when you eventually take a different job. Avoiding this unpleasantness is important if you want to leave your current job on good terms and with a good personal reference.

Creating a safe and secure online resume

The first and most important step in creating a safe and secure online resume is to limit the amount of personal information it contains. The less information it contains, the less likely it is your privacy and confidentiality will be compromised.

To protect yourself, follow these basic guidelines:

• Do not include your phone number
• Do not include your address, either personal or business; you may elect to use a post office box instead
• Do not use your personal email address
• Use a separate email address, set up solely for use in your online job search

Let's talk for a moment about the last point, setting up a separate email address for your online job search. There are many well-known providers of free email addresses, such as Yahoo, Hotmail, and Gmail. Potential employers will not be at all concerned about seeing an email address from these sources, but they will be put off if you are not careful about the specific user name you choose.

For instance, if you choose something like 'sexygal@...' or 'skaterdude@...' you can expect potential employers to not take you very seriously. Instead of trying to be clever, choose something more professional such as 'jdoe@...' or 'jsmith@...' for your username.

Protecting your current employment

It is important to protect your current employment, but how can you do this and still communicate important information about your current job responsibilities? This is important, after all, to help potential employers gauge in part your experience and qualifications for the position you are seeking.

Here are a couple of tips to help you accomplish this:

• Do not use your current employer's name. Instead, identify your employer using a generic description of the business or industry. Be careful, however, to be accurate in this description and avoid anything misleading or exaggerating

• Do not use your current job title if it is unique or easy to trace back to you. Again, use a generic description of your title that accurately describes your position without being misleading or exaggerating

You might think making these kinds of changes will detract from the quality of your resume and prevent potential employers from being interested in you as a job candidate. In most cases, however, this is not the case. Potential employers generally understand why job seekers want to protect their current employment in the beginning and will not count this against you. There is plenty of opportunity for more specifics if they choose to bring you in for a personal interview.

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Related Articles

• Finding Jobs Online
• Starting Your Online Job Search
• Creating an Internet Resume
• Protecting Your Privacy
• Safe E-Mail and Blogging

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