Last year, one of the big online job boards made it public that they had had a fairly severe security breach. Understandably, this may have made you hesitant to put your resume online, for fear of your personal information being sold to direct marketers or email marketers. You may even have concerns about identity theft. This article is going to show you some ways that you can make sure not to expose yourself to scams such as these during your internet jobs search.

You could always just not put your resume on the Internet, right? Well sure, but that's going to put you at a pretty big disadvantage, as a lot of recruiters use the Internet to find candidates, and if it's not there, they can't find you, which means that you will have to be a lot more proactive, monitoring many job boards before you find a position that matches your skill set. It's much easier if the recruiters can find you, and another advantage is that they might be able to tell you about unadvertised jobs. If that's the case, you want to be able to be easily found- so how can you assure you're not opening yourself up to a ton of risk, and that your information will be safe?

A good rule of thumb is don't post your resume anywhere that you're not confident about. Trust your instincts. When you do decide to post your resume to a internet jobs board, make sure you read their privacy policy carefully. They may resell your resume or access to it, and you need to make sure that their affiliate websites and clients also have privacy policies that you can live with. You might even want to set up an employer account so that you can check the boards' employer guidelines for searching resumes, too. At the end of the day, the best way to get the information you need is to email or call the job board and request it- they want your resume, as it's how they make money, so they will do their best to accommodate you in most cases.

The work doesn't stop after you've decided where to put your resume. You have to also be very careful when applying to jobs and both opening and responding to email solicitation. Job boards work very hard to ensure that only real jobs get posted, however, a certain amount of junk is bound to get through the filters, so to speak. The old adage- if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is- was never truer than when applied to the Internet. Never, ever give out personal information such as your Social Security number or bank account information- as stated by their privacy policies, a recruiter and/or a job board will never, ever ask for that information in an email.

If you do get such an email and know which job board the person found your resume and got your contact information from, it is in everyone's best interest for you to notify the job board with as much information about the scam and person emailing you as possible. You can do the same if you see a fraudulent looking posting. The more aware job boards and the Internet community are of scammers, the more they can help prevent them from scamming you and others.

By knowing where your resume is posted, doing your due diligence in regards to security measures and keeping an eye out for fraud, you can help keep yourself and your personal information safe while conducting an internet jobs search.