Surprise: DON'T post your resume everywhere
It is SO tempting to post your resume online everywhere you can. “Wow, think of all the people who will see it and call me!”, you may be thinking. "Especially in this job market!"
After all, it must be a good idea because ALL these places online offer it as a key feature to you using their site, right?!
WRONG!
Here are 7 reasons for NOT posting your resume:
1. You lose control of it: You don’t know who’s viewing it or downloading it or why. Could it be an unethical recruiter who’s shopping it around without your knowledge, possibly jeopardizing your chances with a good recruiter? Could it be someone who’s copying it as theirs? Or someone fishing for personal information they can mine for identity theft?
2. You should tailor it for each opportunity, not put out a one-size-fits-all. Because one size does not fit all. The same reason applies to those services that promise to email your resume "to over a thousand hiring managers who want to hire you!!!" In 20 years, I've known zero candidates -- whether individual contributor or CEO -- who have gotten quality responses to such a “method”, and none have received any offers that way.
3. Different job boards have different reputations in the minds of hiring managers and recruiters, from awful to OK, whether they are free for you or you have to pay to join. Whichever one yours is on, that reputation will rub off on your resume.
You know which one(s) I'm talking about: where you post your Software Project Manager resume and get responses trying to entice you to become a financial planner "because you are a perfect fit!"
4. For that reason, the responses give you false hope. You post your resume, your inbox shows responses, and your heart drops when you see what they really are. After a short while, you think "No one must want me for what I can do because I'm getting these lousy responses from these postings." Someone out there does want you but it's unlikely you'll find them this way. Don’t bring yourself down, on top of everything else.
5. Today, employers and recruiters are using LinkedIn, social media and (this is a biggie) their own employees to find great people. In many cases, they don't want to spend the money for job boards because they get better responses in other ways. So why should they look there?
6. It's lazy to “post everywhere”. The statistics don't prove that "posting" works. But it's easy and feels like you're doing "something". There's no way around networking that introduces you to people inside your target companies, which is what really works. So be good to yourself and do what works.
7. You risk overexposure: Good recruiters often won't touch a candidate whose materials are all over the place because they figure that person will be picked up by someone else.
There is one exception: Your professional association that posts jobs and members' resumes on their (secure) site that requires a login. OR, if you’re a new grad, your college’s job board where only the college’s seniors or alums can post, and only select recruiters can see.
So do what works, not what feels (very temporarily) good.
You deserve it.
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