Tales from The Resume Reef...Of Spam and Privacy!

When I put my resume on the job boards last year, I wanted to cut back on “spamportunity.” Thus, I created a Yahoo email account just for the job search.

Yahoo has a fairly good spam filtering system, and I also knew that my email would only be related to job search items. Easy to keep personal things separate.

Yahoo, AIM, Hotmail and Gmail all offer free email accounts: any would be good for your job search.

My suggestion is that you create an account JUST for your job search. Put that as your email contact on your resume and use it for any email sign ins or job applications you fill out on line. Your new and separate email account will be the place you can correspond online regarding your job search and do so with more privacy.

As someone who has posted a resume using my “normal” account, I can tell you that the spam jockeys grab those email addresses with alacrity. Why give them ANYTHING that will help them bombard you with a plethora of “make millions of dollars by doing nothing at home” ads?

Plus, by keeping your “job search” email separate, you protect email confidentiality. Believe it or not, I’ve gotten resumes from people who use their work emails for job searches. Not only do more and more companies monitor email and internet use, but also ANYONE can walk by your desk and see what’s open in your MS Outlook at work.

After all, we don’t always close Outlook every time we leave our work areas!