10 Tips to Successful Resume Posting on the Internet

Save yourself a lot of time, effort and pain on your Internet job search by posting your resume wisely.

Marilyn recently emailed to ask the following question:

What do you think about posting CV's on job-seekers sites? In the past I hesitated to do so because I thought that it made me seem desperate – now I wonder if I am just losing an important job-seeking venue.

Posting resumes on the Internet isn't a sign of desperation, but posting resumes indiscriminately is a sign of gullibility among other things.

10 tips regarding privacy, usability and cost for you and recruiters

Keep your contact information hidden

The #1 fear of posting should be from resume identity theft. Only use job sites that keep your coordinates away from recruiters unless you grant access.

Confirm that you retain ownership of your content once posted

Should job sites be allowed to sell your resume to other job sites without your permission? Of course not.

Make sure you can delete your resume at any time

Usually you will only want to delete your resume after you've accepted a contract but it will be much sooner if you're getting harassed.

Choose reputable websites only

Watch out for signs of a spammer job site.

Use a disposable email address if you have no choice

If you like the job site in question enough that you're willing to tolerate publicly giving out an email address, protect yourself by using throwaway email services like mailexpire or TempEMail. Create a separate address for each job site. The added benefits are that you can easily customize the name, and you'll know that any email received is based only on the job site where you submitted that address. Test the address first!

Keep confidential information to a minimum

Any hidden information such as your current employer or contact information (where it's justified, see above) will lower your response rate.

You may want to hide your current employer

An HR department using Google Alerts would soon know that your resume has been posted. If you have a good alibi, follow the previous tip and keep this information on your resume regardless.

Use sites that are easy to use for recruiters too

Posting your resume is only useful if it's going to be found by the right people. If the job site is hard to use for recruiters or employers, they won't use it and won't find your resume.

Write a catchy headline that will appear in search results

A reputable job site will have a lot of resumes for recruiters to skim through. You must make your resume stick out with a good resume headline. Avoid saying “best resume ever” and stick to being honest but edgy. Imagine yourself browsing search results in Google, it's the same thing.

Bear in mind usage costs for everyone involved

Job seekers should never have to pay to post their resume. The resume *is* your payment for the site's services. After all, they'll have no traffic without your resume. On the flip side, recruiters/employers should never have to pay to search the resume database, but it's fair for them to pay to contact you.

If you enjoyed this article, you'll like 4 Things to Know and Do Before Employers Google Your Name.

Related articles from around the Web

• Resume posting advice
• Twelve resume posting truths
• Privacy tips for online job seekers

Ready to post? Subscribe to JobMob via RSS or email and follow me on Twitter for more power resume pointers.