Don’t believe the fairy tale and protect your privacy
It seemed like a great idea. Post my resume online and get the offer of my dreams for the perfect neonatal nurse practitioner position. Soon I’d be working in the best Magnet hospital with all the latest equipment. I would finally get to leave my boring town and live someplace exciting. I would have a guaranteed plan to pay off all my student debt and live a cutesy little apartment in the best section of town with the beach and fun, eclectic restaurants nearby. And maybe (one day) hire someone to clean my house for me! My plan was perfect.
Until it wasn’t.
Posting my resume all over the world wide web, I soon learned, was not at all what it promised to be, and it was definitely not the smartest career move. It was closer to a catch-22. A fairy tale. Or at least, a fairy tale where I did not get the happily ever after. So here’s a tip: don’t make the same mistakes I did, and (hopefully) learn from mine.
Mistake #1 – More Posting Equals More Action
It is true that the more you post your resume, the more people will be able to see it. This is a known fact, and if you are just receiving your NNP degree, it can be hard to get that first job initially. So the temptation becomes to start applying everywhere to multiple agencies that hire within your field.
Learn my from my mistake: Be careful where you put your resume. It needs to be in a reputable location. Forbes.com encourages people to carefully choose where they put their resume, and what information is shared.
Mistake #2 – Share All of Your Contact Information
In the age of information, we are used to sharing just about everything about ourselves. Our address, phone number, email, Facebook account, and even Instagram contact information. But here’s the thing, the more that recruiters know about you, the more they have access to you.
While you are looking, you tend to get lots of action. This can be calls and inquiries by recruiters, headhunters, human resources divisions, and internal recruiters. This access to you seems suitable when you are looking for a job, but it often comes with a hefty price tag. Phone calls at 6 pm, 20-30 spam emails daily, and texts at odd hours about an immediate job opening.
The more public places that you share information, the less amount of private information you should be sharing. Consider carefully if you want to share your full address and phone number as you may be inundated with mail and spam calls. You may want to consider even making a secondary email account that is dedicated only for employment opportunities. This way, you will not clog up your personal email with spam.
Learn from my mistake: Share only the bare minimum of contact information online.
Mistake #3 – Thinking Your Job Hunt Stops Online Too
Once you finally find your dream job and sign the contracts, it is an exhilarating time. However, stopping the other recruiters and job boards from contacting you (since you already are working) is not so exciting. When recruiters look online, they may not realize that your job searching days are over. In most places, they still see you as an active job seeker.
This can be confusing to employers who are looking for a great candidate like you, but (worst case scenario) it is even more confusing for your employer to see your resume online and think you are job searching — again — right after you started working for them.
Stopping spam calls, robotexts, and countless emails immediately are virtually impossible; it takes months or even years for some companies to remove your information. I know when you read this, you may think that I’m joking, but I’m really not. Five years ago, I started applying to multiple companies for a new position. Just yesterday, at the time of writing this article, I am still getting random texts and emails from recruiters (even after multiple attempts at canceling my account and sending unsubscribe notices).
Learn from my mistake: It is easy to post your resume online; it is not as easy to take it down.
What about you? Have you ever posted your resume online…and then regretted it? Shout out in the comments below what lessons you learned in the process!
