Resume Confidentiality

The more ways you give interested employers to reach you and verify your credentials, the better. But it's a dilemma if you wish to keep your job search confidential, so that your current employer doesn't find out. The more personally-identifiable information you give out, the more you risk exposing your intention to jump ship. Conversely, the more you protect the confidentiality of your job search, the more you might limit your job opportunities.

But there are ways to provide just enough info to get employers interested, while avoiding exposure. Most employers will assume that your job search might be confidential. So, they'll likely accept a limited amount of vague information initially, about your identity and current employer. That's what the job-search confidentiality tips below are about. They cover most circumstances, but you might want to avoid limiting your opportunities more than you must to maintain minimal confidentiality. Take your pick.

Internet Resumes

Posting your resume to the Internet is a great way to increase exposure. But it's also a dangerous way for your resume to end up on your boss's desk! (Guess who might be first up on the chopping block when a layoff looms?) When posting your resume to the Internet (e.g., at job banks), you'll likely have to register, eliminating the need to include your name and contact info in your resume.

• Omit your name from your resume or replace it with a generic "name" or job title, such as
• Systems Administrator
• Sr. Technical Trainer, Confidential Resume
• Confidential Candidate

• Name Omitted for Confidentiality

• Remember, your current employer's HR department and your boss might have your street address and home phone number on file. Omit your street address, home phone number, and other identifiable contact information too. Most communications about Internet resumes are electronic anyway. So, an email address alone will do. However, your location might be important for local employers who don't wish to pay for relocation. Consider adding your location to your generic name, such as
• San Francisco Bay Area Systems Administrator
  sys_admin@mailboxes.com

• Confidential Candidate: Technical Writer II
  St. Louis, MO
  techwriter123@myinbox.net

• Natch, don't include your work contact info on your resume either. It's a dead giveaway.
• If your personal email address includes information that identifies you, get a temporary one and make it generic, as shown above.

• If you want to give recruiters and potential employers the option to reach you by phone, use a number that only trusted people know, such as your personal cell phone number.

• Write a generic name for your present employer. If your other gigs can be readily linked to you, consider doing the same for your past employers. Examples are below.
• Top Computer Manufacturer
• Major Software Enterprise

• Telecommunications Conglomerate

• Omit attendance and graduation dates from your education section. Determined employers can find out who attended and graduated when. That's a good idea anyway, to avoid giving away your age. Besides, it's not necessary to include education dates on a U.S. resume.

• Omit any other hints to your identity, such your age, marital status, and number of children. You don't need to provide this information on a U.S. resume anyway. It's against the law for U.S. employers to ask, and it might make them uncomfortable if you volunteer it. Never include your social security number on your resume. It's not required on resumes either, and including it voluntarily is an identity-theft risk. (You will need to provide it on job applications though, for paycheck taxes.) If you're in a profession that requires you to submit a more-detailed Curriculum vitae (CV), you still don't need to include your most personal details in the U.S. equivalent. If you're applying for a job outside of the U.S., the laws are different, so you might be required to include personal details that aren't necessary elsewhere. But, you probably don't have to worry as much about confidentiality when submitting your personal information overseas.

• Exclude your references from your resume. Besides the fact they can be linked to you, they might not be your references for long if you post their contact info on the Internet! References go on a separate sheet or job application anyway. Just write References available on request near the bottom of your resume.

Paper Resumes

The same goes for your paper resumes, except for those you hand out at interviews. For interviews, it's a good idea to include your real name, so interviewers may later associate your resume with your face. It's also a good idea to provide all your personal contact info, so the interviewer can more easily reach you. But natch, don't include your contact info at your current employer. (To avoid having to keep track of multiple versions of your resume, you might just staple your business card to the confidential version. But don't use your business card from your current employer. More about business cards later.) Just make sure that the company for which you're interviewing is not connected to your current employer. Subsidiaries, partner companies, cooperatives, and so on, often share job candidate information.

On resumes that you hand out to recruiters and networking contacts, it's probably best to implement most to all of the safety measures above. Once it's out of your hands, you never know on whose desk your resume might land.

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