Hate Confidential Resumes? Join The Club…
I have a laundry list of reasons why I wouldn’t use resume databases for recruiting, but I think the number one "headache" is the confidential resume.
Don’t Blame The JobSeeker!
Not that I don’t completely understand why the jobseeker isn’t interested in having their contact information stored for the whole world to find and exploit; with identity theft crimes running rampant and employers having subscriptions to the same resume databases, we’re lucky that ANY of the resumes have complete contact information accessible. This is a major reason why the whole idea of a public resume database is completely flawed.
Who Pays? The JobSeeker…
Unfortunately for the jobseeker, having a confidential resume stored is a one-way ticket to getting skipped by the recruiter with any kind of deadline (or pipeline for that matter). Unless the resume is phenomenal or one-of-a-kind, it just doesn’t make financial sense to chase down every confidential resume.
The Problem Is Getteing Worse
On general sites like Monster and Careebuilder, I’ve seen a major spike in the number of confidential resumes during recent years: an entire article could be dedicated to the reasons why (and I’ll talk about it), but for this post the point is that confidential resumes are becoming more popular, but the cost of the resume databases is staying the same.
There Is At Least 1 Solution:
StaffLeads addresses this problem by taking the resume directly from the jobseeker with completed contact information and ONLY sending that resume to the recruiters who are trying to fill the position the candidate is qualified for.
Are you plagued by "confidential resumes"? Do you skip them, or spend time trying to find out who the resume belongs to? Let’s hear it!
April 29th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Good points! Much of the same can be said for any jobseeker using an email with overly strict spam filtering. How many times have I gotten an automated reply from an ISP asking that I send a one-line reply to enable the recipient to discern if I should be allowed to communicate with them?!
Being alive means one is exposed to some measure of risk. Too many of us miss out on so much of life b/c we’re so afraid of taking reasonable risks. Such people often miss out on great jobs…
April 29th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
@Chuck - you’re right about the email being a major headache, and even more correct about the risk involved with living!
Here’s what I think:
Using the current STANDARD platforms of online job recruiting (job boards, resume databases, etc) many jobseekers miss out on great jobs.
BUT
For every jobseeker that misses out on a great job, you’ll find that 10+ companies miss out on great employees.
April 30th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
While I agree that seeing the conact information is always preferred I think to skip over them is a mistake:
-Recruiters skipping over them makes for less competition.
-Sending them an introduction, a purpose for the contact usually results in a response.
-This is the beginning of a passive candidate database.
To ignore them completely, for me, is a big mistake but am happy that many of my colleagues do. I make at least one placement per quarter from them.