Open your eyes to the outright risks of responding to blind employment ads

Q: Why do some companies use blind ads, where the hiring company's name is not listed and it invites you to reply to an unknown "address"? Are those real jobs, or are they bogus? What are these advertisements all about?

Nick's reply: Would you share private, personal information about yourself with someone about whom you know nothing -- not even his name? Yet people reply to the "blind" employment ads you refer to all the time. It's sheer folly. In one of the worst scenarios, the applicant finds out too late that it's his own company that he has sent his resume to.

Yes, some headhunters (and some employers) will run blind ads just to fill their databases. They like to have a rolling inventory of resumes to turn to when they actually need to fill a job.

There's usually a tip-off, though. Such ads are often composites. That is, the requirements they list cover several different jobs. The advertiser hopes to attract resumes for all those jobs, all for the price of one ad. The other tip-off is that you receive little or no feedback about your application because there is no active search going on for candidates. Meanwhile, you sit wondering when this employer is going to call you.

Some headhunters run blind ads because they're recruiting for a client who requires secrecy until appropriate candidates are identified. However, I think this approach is only rarely justified. Good headhunters don't need to run ads or to be so cagey. When a headhunter claims an ad is blind because the search is highly confidential, that's a little suspicious. The headhunter can usually list his own firm's name and address, thereby protecting the identity of his client.

Of course, employers themselves will sometimes run blind ads, but few positions are so sensitive. And as I've suggested, a good headhunter can insulate a client. Another purpose for blind ads is the insulation of a company's human resources (HR) department. HR simply doesn't want tenacious job hunters talking to hiring managers because HR wants complete control over the hiring process. Of course, any Ask The Headhunter devotee will laugh at that. Once you have the job description and know the company, it's not hard to identify the hiring manager and sidestep both the HR department and your competition.

Are some of these blind ads scams? As we've discussed, yes. It's a scam to run a composite ad implying there's a job open when there isn't. It's also a scam when an employer runs a blind ad hoping to catch some of its own employees job hunting, as a misguided loyalty test. It's a scam when an independent "recruiter" runs blind ads to gather resumes that he can distribute -- unsolicited -- to a mailing list of employers, hoping to score a placement fee.

Is it a scam when the "opportunity" is some hokey multilevel marketing (MLM) "job"? I leave that for you to decide. MLM has found a good tool in blind ads. Not many people would reply to an MLM ad, but many might be intrigued by the mystery of a seemingly secret solicitation. The trouble is, after you tell a clever MLM advertiser to take a hike, he may add the information on your resume to his mailing list database -- and sell it to others.

Perhaps the worst blind-ad scam is identity theft. Consider all the confidential information that's on your resume -- information that can be used to "prove" that someone must be you. Your full name, your address and telephone number, your last several employers, your job titles, your memberships in professional and civic associations, the schools you attended, the degrees you have and in some cases your hobbies and the names of your spouse and children. (You might be surprised how much information people put on resumes.) An identity thief needs only a handful of resumes to profit from a blind ad.

Some blind ads are legitimate. There's a real employer, a real job and a real opportunity -- and possibly a legitimate reason for the secrecy. Your challenge is to figure out which ones. Are you missing out on a juicy top-secret job? Sure, and I'm James Bond. Today, even the CIA advertises jobs openly.

If you don't know who's asking for your resume, there's no way to check them out. My advice: Don't take the risk. If this secret employer calls you and you go, you're looking for trouble.

Copyright 2009. Distributed by Universal Press Syndicate

Nick Corcodilos is author of "Ask The Headhunter: Reinventing the Interview to Win the Job" and the host of www.asktheheadhunter.com. He can be reached by e-mail at seattle@asktheheadhunter.com or at North Bridge Group, P.O. Box 600, Lebanon, NJ 08833. Sorry, no personal replies.