don't post resumes online!

Madison is single, 27, and having finally found a job -- through a friend - she she is frantically trying to delete all of her personal job hunting records from the Net.

"I was really desperate when I was unemployed," sighs Madison. "I posted hundreds of resumes online and I never bothered to keep a record of where I had posted them."

"I also joined lots of groups and left my personal details all over the place hoping that someone, somewhere would take pity on me!"

"Now that I've found a new job and my self-esteem has returned I'm feeling so ashamed of what I did -- I was, in effect, prostituting myself by throwing around my personal details on the web."

"And yet I'm not the only person in the world who is forced to do this," sighs Madison. "Lots of unemployed people do it and lots of professional recruiters tell us to do it, too. 'If you're serious about finding a job you'll do it' they told me."

"I've found a lot of my old online resumes through the search engines," says Madison, "and some of them were full of silly typing errors because I did it all so fast."

"In the unlikely event that any employer actually read my online resume it would have given a very bad impression of my skills," laughs Madison, "but no genuine employer ever reads the online resumes -- the only people who read them are the perverts and now I'm scared someone is going to stalk me!"

"Not many of the online resume posting sites have an easy delete option," says Madison, "so I've had to email the webmasters to do it for me."

"So far I've received only one response from the webmasters I emailed requesting deletion of my personal records," says Madison. "I fear that some of the sites I posted my resume to are dead -- and will just stay online for the perverts to look at until the web server company removes them."

"On one website I was able to delete my resume very easily," says Madison, "but when I searched the site for anything with other file extensions -- such as cvs.doc or resumes.doc -- I was able to get a list of non-html documents in which I was still listed."

"Granted, this sort of document doesn't get published as it isn't html," says Madison, "but it does mean that the guys running the website keep a permanent record of my details and I don't like that."

An even worse scenario for Madison is that some of her online resumes might be in some search engine cache that takes months to refresh - or is even permanently listed in some obscure search engine that never updates.

"Even though my online resume might have been removed from the site," explains Madison, "my name and personal details might still be listed with various search engines for everyone to see."

"There is also the 'Wayback Machine' search engine at archive.org that caches everything that was published on the web in recent years."

"This particular search engine really annoys me," says Madison, "because everyone has posted something to a newsgroup or website that they later regret - either for personal or security reasons - and it's not nice that we are denied the right to delete things that were never intended to be permanent records."

"There could be a permanent online record of all my personal details - my name, address and telephone number - as well as all the typos, grammatical mistakes and inappropriate information I posted on the Net when I was out of work and desperate," groans Madison.

"The Internet is not only great for research," grimaces Madison, "but it's also great for snooping on silly people like me who don't know what they're getting into when they use the Net for job hunting -- so watch out everyone!."

job ad buzzwords

Priscilla is a single mom who, like a lot of women, was introduced to the Internet by her young son. She is currently looking for a job and thinks that the Internet is fantastic for refining a job search and researching buzzwords.

"My son nagged me for ages to get online at home," laughs Priscilla, "and I finally relented when I realized how useful the Internet is going to be for my job-search."

"I still read the newspaper ads, of course," says Priscilla, "but the Internet is so much faster. My main problem, though, with both newspaper and Internet job advertisements, is that I'm overwhelmed by all the jargon and buzzwords.”

She has simplified her job-search by finding out exactly what some of these buzzwords really mean.

"On the Internet I can refine my job-search by excluding certain buzzwords that I know are misleading," explains Priscilla, "and you can't do that with newspaper ads."

"A popular buzzword is team player," says Priscilla. "Unfortunately, just about every workplace these days seems to be run on team principles. If you are not willing to sacrifice your individuality for the common cause of the team - as I am - then you will not make a good team player. I don't apply for such jobs but I bet some really nasty people apply for team role jobs and actually win them."

“The trick for them is to pass the interview, get the job and then make everyone on the team miserable,” laughs Priscilla.

When Priscilla sees the team player buzzword, she reads a menial job, a job unsupportive of your well being and advancement.

"The only people who thrive in team environments are the manipulative types who get everyone else to do their work, and the sweeties who effectively have the same motive," says Priscilla. "So when a job advertisement includes the buzzword team player, I know they are looking for someone submissive and easily bossed around."

What about attention to detail? In the publishing and banking profession we are required to be hawks, but Priscilla wonders why it is required so much of other professions. And how does one gauge whether one is good at paying attention to detail?

"Everyone makes mistakes," says Priscilla. "and most workplaces have some sort of quality control in place to pick up errors before they cause major trouble. So why is it necessary to advertise for a hawk-eyed person?"

Priscilla believes that either they are discriminating against people with poor eyesight or the work is so boring that previous employees have fallen asleep on the job.

“Of course, recruiters these days cannot be blatantly discriminatory in their advertisements,” says Priscilla, “but if you look closely at advertisements you can read between the lines about the type of person they want, such as young environment or recent graduate. Nobody over 30 is going to want to answer an advertisement geared towards a younger applicant.”

Conversely, mature person turns off the under 30s although maturity, per se, has nothing to do with age.

Leadership skills is a buzzword that often describes a tough person, someone capable of firing their own mom. So, someone with the quiet leadership skills of a Nelson Mandela wouldn’t stand a chance.

“And that’s a shame,” says Priscilla, “because that’s the type of leader workers do admire.”

”I don't enjoy working late," says Priscilla, "so I avoid any job advertisement using drive, initiative and deadlines as buzzwords."

"Smoking is prohibited in all workplaces and public venues so I wonder about advertisers who feel it necessary to add non smoking workplace to their spiel," says Priscilla. "I think it could be a disincentive for social smokers to apply. The employer hates smokers!"

Priscilla admits that she spends more time surfing on the Net than using it for job-hunting, and this is probably true for anyone who uses the Net to find a job.

"I'm mixing business with pleasure," laughs Priscilla, "or should I say 'background researching' the job-market."

researching personal care jobs

Nadine is 19, living at home with her parents and she's been out of work for six months after losing a job as a shop assistant. The Internet is helping her find a new career and personal care appeals.

"Being between jobs," says Nadine, "is a perfect time to dream, discover what you really love doing and gain the skills to do it professionally."

"The Internet is great for researching job opportunities," says Nadine, "and despite my current unemployed status I have stacks of hope and enthusiasm for the future."

"What I've learned from the Internet - like everyone else has - is that hundreds of thousands of Baby Boomers are approaching retirement and the future looks very bright for younger workers."

"What excites me from my Internet research," says Nadine, "is that economists predict a boom in a multitude of services geared towards catering for the aging Baby Boomers - healthcare and household services particularly - that is going to rival the boom in childcare services that followed a massive increase in working women as a result of the Women's Liberation movement of the 1960s."

"I've never thought about becoming a nurse or a personal carer or a housekeeper," says Nadine, "but if these jobs are predicted to expand in the future then healthcare or personal services would be the ideal way for me to go because I'm not exactly a brain and I have no qualifications in anything."

"I'm not cut out for office work or running my own business," laughs Nadine, "and after spending hours and hours on the Net researching the job market I am getting eye strain already."

"I need a hands on type job - but it has to be a job with a future."

"I've worked in shops and food outlets and I hate that type of work."

"I like being with people and helping people," says Nadine, "but I don't know whether I have the brains to do nursing - I have friends doing nursing and they sit hundreds of exams. I couldn't do that."

"It looks like personal services such as becoming a housekeeper or personal carer might be the ideal type of job for me."

"I suppose I could get a job in a big hotel chain as a maid and work my way up," muses Nadine, "or I could find a job in a nursing home for the elderly - doing anything - and become a nursing aide or something."

"With the Internet I can research hotel chains and nursing homes and pick up the information I need."

"It's a lot better than telephoning these places because nobody has time to speak to you."

Nadine is happy enough staying home and helping her mother around the house, but she is working very hard towards discovering what she wants to do with the rest of her life and she knows from her Internet research that there will come a time when employers will be beating down her door to employ her, and there will come a time when even unqualified people like her will be in high demand.

"I'm optimistic about the future," smiles Nadine, "it has to be better than what it is now."