Avoiding the job hunting Rip-Offs

Are You Using the Internet to Assist Your Job Search?

Don’t let Internet scammers derail your search. Watch for these pitfalls that can cost you time, money and pain.

You don’t like your new boss. The company looks like it may go under. You have just been reorganized out of a job. There are many reasons someone decides that now is the time to start looking for a new position. Generally, the first step is to post your resume on the internet and then sit back and wait for those job offers to start pouring in.

Posting on the internet is a correct step, but it also makes you an instant target of scam and rip-off artists. You have put a great big public bull’s eye on yourself. There are literally thousands of companies doing business on the internet that make their living by helping others find work, (including this one). Some of them offer real value, most are innocuous, and offer little of value and substance, and a significant number make their living off of the old maxim made famous by PT Barnum, “there is sucker born every minute”. This article will help you identify some of the more prevalent job search scams out there, and help you make prudent decisions where to spend your job search dollars. The sleazy outfits recognize that many, if not most job seekers are in a crisis of some sort, and seize upon that to make offers that sound too good to be true. There are no shortcuts or instant fixes to help you find that next job.

Some of the more common things you will encounter, and you should be aware of, once you post your resume are:

• Email phishing: This one can be either the most harmless or most insidious, depending on your point of view. You post your resume, and you get a response inviting you to apply for a job, from what appears to be a legitimate agency, representing a well known company. They want some personal information, and they ask you to submit a resume to this agency. They also ask you if you are interested in receiving information about other things, such as higher education opportunities or self employment opportunities. The follow up from the employment agency never comes, but your email and home mail box will be full of trash that you just signed up for. 
• Resume writing services: Posting your resume leaves your resume open to critique. No one has the formula for a resume that works for every job, but people will tell you they do. There are companies charging up to $ 500, for a “guaranteed to work” resume. A good resume is one of a number of tools you need to get a job, not the only one. No one ever got a job based only on their resume. Many of us need professional help in writing our resume, but you should not pay more than $150 - $ 250, and it should be in a form that you can easily customize for each job opening to which you apply.
• Cover Letter writing services: Companies promise for $ 200 - $ 300 to write a cover letter that will “guarantee an interview”. Bull Manure!!! Most cover letters never get read, as the process most companies now use is to first scan resumes electronically, than follow up if they meet certain criteria. Cover letters are useful in certain cases, but they must be highly customized to the individual position and circumstance. No do all, be all, cover letter can do that, so save your money.
• Fax distribution services: There are companies out there that will fax your resume “directly to thousands of hiring managers” for a fee, usually somewhere from $.07 to $.25 each. Think about this one. Who pays attention to faxes any more? Business has generally outgrown fax technology. Many companies no longer use faxes at all, and most just use it for a few specific customers or vendors. The only guarantee you can make on a faxed resume is that 99.999% certainly will be filed in the circular file.
• Employment coaching services: This is the one of which you most need to be careful. After you post your resume, you get a call from a very sincere sounding salesperson, making a bunch of promises. No money is necessary, just let us send you some material. You get a bunch of glossy literature which is aiming at selling services and not getting you employed. You pay $5,000 - $10,000 up front, and the quality of what you get varies from low to mediocre. The same training they give you is available here, for thousands less. Mass mail and mass, faceless resume distribution is useless. Save your money. The common thread that runs through all these businesses is a huge number of testimonials of success. Remember, the testimonials are anecdotal, and quantitative. If you have 10,000 customers, and you help 10, you have a .001% success rate. Those 10 however are the ones featured prominently on the literature and advertising. Last words – there is no shortcut to getting a job, just like there is no shortcut to anything else. It takes planning and hard work, especially for people in our age bracket. Anything that promises to circumvent that process is only out to separate you from your money.

Categories: Use of Internet, Job Search Help