Last Friday, in honor of the upcoming Halloween and all its frightfulness, we related some horror stories from the interview process. Well, Halloween is even closer now, and as people prepare for weekend costume parties or prepare bags of popcorn to sustain them through “Monster Fest” or “Monster Madness” or the Halloween movie marathon of their choice, we thought it only appropriate to bring forth even scarier material. These aren’t interview stories, though, there just some of the most frightening things facing the industry today:

Selling Resumes and Identity Theft
We’ve talked about it before, but the problem seems to be getting even worse. We know that people who need a job do everything they can to make sure their online applications and resumes include all of the information the “company” is looking for, and sometimes they just give too much info. However, without any real confidentiality or protection on today’s job boards and with the boards selling resumes without the knowledge of candidates, thieves can quite easily get a hold of info that candidates thought wasn’t being shared with anyone:

“Alex Murphy, a director with HotResumes, concedes that people who post their resumes on the site may not be aware those resumes can be sold. But he says the company’s privacy policy, which all posters agree to when posting their resumes, permits the sales.
Some experts counter that such resume sales take away job seekers’ control over their personal data, putting them at risk of identity theft and Internet scams, as well as annoying e-mail spamming. “The abuses have grown exponentially, and daily we learn of new ways that our personal information can be aggregated, used and sold,” says Gerry Crispin, co-author of “CareerXroads,” a guide to online job boards.” (From SCJob.com)

Fruitless Job Searches

“First, scary story in the NY Times yesterday (subscription possibly required - and worth it!) about men in the prime of their lives not working, and not looking for work.
“‘About 13 percent of American men between the age of 30 to 55 are not working, up from 5 percent in the late 1960’s. The difference represents 4 million men who would be working today if the employment rate had remained where it was in the 1950’s and 60’s.’
“I really feel for these guys. As you read the article you can see how life has dealt them a harsh blow and then they have lost some confidence and spiraled downwards. Finally at some point they get so low they give up trying.” (From The Asia Pacific Headhunter)

Read our latest Plan B post for more on the subject of fruitless job searches and the effects they can have on job seekers.

Monster Advice
It wouldn’t be Halloween without a monster. Or at least a Monster.com. It’s no secret that we feel the big job boards are lacking in a number of areas, but here is something we’ve not touched on yet:

“…the Monster.com resume guru suggests you write a cover letter that begins like this:

“‘Your advertisement on Monster for a (insert job title) fits my experience and qualifications perfectly, and I am writing to express my interest in and enthusiasm for the position…’ “Anyway, my point (and I do have one) is that you need to develop a voice and you need to be engaging, interesting, and THEM-focused. I guarantee you–use Monster’s suggestions and you’ll die repeated, horrible deaths in the reject pile.” (From Job Secrets Revealed)

Hmmm. Dying repeated, horrible deaths. It doesn’t get much more Halloween than that. Enjoy the weekend and sleep with the lights on.

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