Recruiters hate Confidential Resumes

Attention candidates:  Recruiters are substantially slowed down by you marking your resume as confidential on the job boards.  Slowed down means everything from they may not want to take the time to contact you through the email addresses 50 characters long, or they may be working a position that only allows 1-2 candidates which means they'll take the first ones that respond.  Remember, recruiters also may be working with 25-50 candidates for various slots, so they may easily lose you in their process.

I know the main reason someone puts their resume on a job board without their name is because the fear that their current employer may find out.  Trust me, I can usually identify someone I am working with by their resume alone.  This includes most candidates that I have worked with in the last few years also. 

I believe that if you truly want to change jobs and don't want to identify yourself on a job board, find a good headhunter.  They can control where and when your resume is presented.  They can also council you on tips for interviewing and resume formats.  Headhunters (independent recruiters) are truly a underutilized allie of the mistreated or misused candidate.  The best ones have been corporate recruiters or staffing recruiters for a number of years and have gone out on their own. 

Comments

[Dawn Boyer]

You are absolutely correct - confidential resumes mean to me "I don't want you to see who I am because I'm so good, you should pursue me to wasting hours and hours of your time."

I usually see a lot of these on Monster, but amazingly enough, they have all their contact info on the resume below the resume title. (Duh!)

I usually send a e-mail tickler to the job seekers using the provided (100 char. long address), but wouldn't know if those confidential folks respond at all by going to my website or not. No way to tell.

You are correct - if you don't want your current employer to find out, ask the HR / recruiting department if they use the resume database you wish to post to, and if they don't use Monster, or CareerBuilder, post there or use niche boards where they may not know about those resume databases.

Dawn Boyer
Corporate Recruiting Manager
Zel Technologies, LLC
www.zeltech.com/employment

[Ken Jenkins]

A confidential resume is the easiest way to get overlooked by a headhunter. It is a source of frustration that most prefer not to deal with. Mike is absolutely correct by suggesting that you contact the headhunter directly if you want to keep your search confidential. Most headhunters keep all searches confidential and can help you quickly identify what companies are a potential match for you.

Ask around and get referrals. There are always a couple of good headhunters in your area who know the market and the companies who are looking for your skill set.