1. You need to ensure that your current employer doesn't discover that your resume is posted on the Internet.  There are documented cases of individuals being called into the boss's office, presented with a copy of their resume that the boss retrieved from an Internet Employment Site, and asked some pretty embarrassing questions like, "Aren't you happy here?" or "How could you even consider leaving here in the middle of this project?"  These are not career-enhancing discussions.

There's also the new, and potentially disturbing , practice of some companies to hire what are referred to as "Employee Salvagers."  Employee Salvagers surf the Internet looking for the resumes of company employees.  When they find the resume of a company employee on the Internet, it's referred to the employee's boss, or the Human Resources Department, so the company can determine what actions are necessary to "salvage" the employee.

2. You want to maintain control of your resume, or minimize the damage when you lose control.  Some Internet Employment Sites sell or swap resumes in order to increase the size of their resume database.  Other Employment Sites use "Resume Robots" or "Resume Spiders" to surf the Internet looking for resumes posted on Personal Web Sites or in unprotected Resume Warehouses.  The robot/spider then copies these unprotected resumes into other sites.  The problem this creates for job seekers is this:  Once your resume has been transferred to sites you are unaware of, you are no longer in control of the resume.

If you are an unemployed job seeker, a student, or an active duty armed forces member preparing to transition back to civilian employment, maintaining your confidentiality may not be important to you.  But you still need to consider the issue of how you maintain control of your resume when you are no longer looking for work.

At Posting Wildcard, we give you a range of options for protecting your confidentiality (see next section). 

At Posting Wildcard, we think there are some simple steps you can take to protect your confidentiality.  We suggest the following:

1. Decide how concerned you are with having your personal contact information on the Internet, and how important it is to be able to "disconnect" your Internet resume when you are no longer looking for work.  If resume confidentiality and Internet disconnecting aren't important, then post your resume to all the free sites you can find containing the type of employment opportunities you seek. 

2. If confidentiality is important to you, stay away from sites that require you to include personal contact information like Name, Address, Telephone Number, Fax Number or Current Employer in your resume.  At Posting Wildcard, we provide you with the option of displaying "full contact information" (Name, Phone, Fax, Mailing Address) or displaying an "email address only."  You can also switch back-and-forth between "full contact information" and "email address only" with the click of a button.  This feature can be very helpful when your job search circumstances change.  Unemployed and looking for opportunities? Select the "display full contact information" option.  Accept a job, but really need a job with better benefits?  Select the "display email address only" option.  Posting Wildcard also provides you with all the tools you need to develop an "accomplishment-based" resume, as opposed to a "chronological" resume.  Accomplishment-based resumes give employers all the information they need to determine if you have the experience, skills and training needed to be a candidate, while still preserving your confidentiality.  Chronological resumes, on the other hand, frequently contain information that inadvertently help identify the job seeker.

One other suggestion if confidentiality is important: Get a separate email address to use for your job search activities, and make sure the email address doesn't contain identifying information like your last name.  Then, once your job search is over, you can cancel the email address.  CLICK HERE to have Posting Wildcard assist you in obtaining a free email address that you can use for your job search activities.

3. If controlling the distribution/proliferation of your resume is important to you, then don't post your resume on the Internet.  Once you do, you are no longer in control of who has access to the resume, or where it is sent.

As an example: You post your resume to Internet Employment Site A.  Recruiting Firm B, which is a paid subscriber to the employment web site, accesses your resume and downloads a copy into the Firm's internal resume database.  Then, it transmits a copy to each of its 20 branch offices!  You delete your resume from Employment Site A.  The 20 copies still exist at Recruiting Firm B.

A second example: You build a Personal Web Site, and include a copy of your resume as one of the pages.  Resume Robots cruising the web copy your resume, and post it to 10 Internet Employment Sites.  You remove your resume from your Personal Web Page because you're getting too many calls about jobs that don't interest you, contacts from people trying to sell you career planning guides, etc.  Your resume still exists at those 10 Internet Employment Sites.

So if losing control of your resume is a problem, how do you maintain control while still having access to employment opportunities posted on the Internet?  At Posting Wildcard, you can create a "Personal Job Scout" that sends you an email message every time a job matching your criteria is posted to one of the Posting Wildcard Job Posting Networks.  Then you can review the job description and decide if you want to apply for the position via email.  You do not have to post your resume on Posting Wildcard in order to use this feature.  The Personal Job Scout allows you to maintain complete control over distribution of your resume, as well as controlling employer or recruiter access to your resume.

1. Posting Wildcard provides the tools required to develop an online "Candidate Profile" that provides employers with all the information they need to evaluate your experience, skills and education, without identifying your current employer (i.e., an Accomplishment-Based Profile).

2. You can elect to provide Posting Wildcard Employers with full contact information (name, mailing address, telephone number, fax number), or with an email address only.

3. If your current email address contains information that could identify you, Posting Wildcard will help you obtain a new, free email address for use with your job search activities.

4. Posting Wildcard provides the tools you need to develop a Personal Job Scout that will notify you every time a job matching your criteria is posted on one of Posting Wildcard's Job Posting Networks.  For positions of interest to you, you can use the Personal Job Scout to forward a copy of your Candidate Profile to employers, or email a resume to employers.

5. Some Internet Employment Sites require you to place a resume (Candidate Profile) on their site in order to use their "job scout" feature.  Posting Wildcard does not.  While we think that an online Candidate Profile and a Personal Job Scout can be very effective when used together, you can build a Personal Job Scout even if you don't have a Posting Wildcard Candidate Profile. 

6. Posting Wildcard never provides your information to other Internet Employment Sites, Email Marketing Firms, etc.  The only individuals that will have access to your Candidate Profile are Posting Wildcard Employers.  

7. All Posting Wildcard Candidate Profiles reside behind a "firewall" and are protected from "Resume Robots."