Believe it or not there is a school of thought that says posting your CV onto a job board can be detrimental to your job search. It’s true that, in the early days of the internet, people were suspicious of giving their details to large CV banks, but surely such misgivings don’t exist these days…Or do they?
So what are the real arguments against using job boards and do they ring true?
Concern #1: “Your boss might find your CV and make your life hell”
Reality: Any job board worth its salt these days will ask you who your current employer is and block them from seeing your CV. Sadly, although retailappointment.co.uk makes sure that your data is secure from being seen by your boss, not all job boards in the industry are that careful with job-seekers’ information. Make sure that the job board you choose states specifically that it will keep your CV safe.
Concern #2: “I’ll get spammed, or worse, scammed!”
Reality: Email marketing is obviously the preferred method for job sites to communicate with users about new positions which have just come up, career advice or information about specific companies.
Most of this is useful, but the problem comes when websites send you jobs that simply don’t fit what you’re looking for, or send you information that isn’t relevant to you. This generally tends to happen with larger, generic job boards rather than industry-specific sites. But a good job board will allow you to set up job alerts linked to your profile.
This is a good way of finding out about all the latest opportunities, but they should always be based on your own criteria to avoid your email being filled with useless emails.
As for spam, like all industries, there is a dark side to recruitment and spammers have been known to target the databases of larger, more generic sites. However, as long as you always choose to upload your CV to a reputable website with a thorough privacy policy you won’t be bombarded with offers of “earning £700 a week working from home”.
Concern #3: “If an employer sees your CV in multiple places, you’ll look desperate”
Reality: In the modern world of job seeking, employers expect candidates to intelligently use as many job-seeing tools as possible. In a competitive world, it’s not realistic to to rely purely on being in the right place at the right time when the perfect opportunity turns up. Modern job seekers will look at the companies that interest them most, but they will also want to spread their nets widely in order to hear about similar positions as soon as possible.
There is also a related argument that says a CV loaded onto a job board will not be tailored to a specific company, which is a job hunting no-no. But recruiters search job boards’ CV banks all the time, and if you have a well laid-out CV with your experience and qualifications listed it at least puts you in with a chance that they’ll want to find out more.
At the end of the day, if you pick a reputable job board, that caters to the industry you work in and has great credentials (a long client list of recognised retailers, a comprehensive privacy policy and data protection assurances) there is no reason why putting your CV on file should be harmful to your job search and chances are it will significantly improve your chances of getting that all-important interview.
