I recently signed up for a free newsletter for a resume writing service whose website I had visited.
In the first newsletter I received, I was surprised that it contained two “great methods” (in the words of the person writing the newsletter) to use during the job search process.
The first method suggested paying a small fee – someone has to make money on this, right? – and having your resume posted instantly on over 90 career sites including many of the big job boards we’ve all heard of plus a bunch of other ones too.
Slapping your resume up on numerous job boards doesn’t accomplish much since everyone can do the same thing just as easily. If anything it makes these job boards even more of a waste of time since it makes it harder for hiring managers to effectively search them. When recruiters see your resume posted on many different job boards, they start wondering why you can’t find a job. Hiring managers probably do the same.
The second suggested job search method involved paying another small fee to have your resume sent out to a “ton of recruiters.” I’m not sure how many recruiters constitute one ton although I guess the old adage of “if you throw enough you-know-what against a wall, something is bound to stick” is the goal here.
I used to work for a recruitment company that signed up for a free trial for one of these resume blasting services. At least by offering the service for free, the resume blasting service had found their optimal price point I guess. The resumes we were sent ended up in the Deleted folder quite quickly without even being read. We were bombarded by resumes from people from all over North America and simply couldn’t be bothered to read them. I suspect many job searchers who pay for this sort of service are legitimately surprised when they don’t get a single response from any one of the people who receive their resume.
I guess it goes to show you that some people should stick to what they know and if it’s writing resumes, then they shouldn’t stray into the field of job searching and career management. If they knew anything about either of these subjects, they’d know that plastering your resume on every job search board and/or firing your resume off to hundreds of recruiters is not only a waste of time, but a good way to devalue your resume and ultimately your own worth.
Plus, you completely lose control of your resume and control over the number of people who know you’re actively looking for a new job. This is especially important if you’re working at the time. Who knows who might get hold of your resume from one of those resume blasting services…your current boss for example?
