The Danger Of Fake Jobs & Fake Job Recruiters

Job seekers are interviewing with online recruiters that pressure job candidates into giving sensitive and confidential information. Using fake job postings and targeting specific individuals for fake job interviews have become a tool for spying and identity theft.



Scenario One:

The target is lured by the position, salary, benefits or other enticements and in the interviewing process becomes comfortable and becomes less guarded about the details of the work they are doing at their current company.



Answering seemingly harmless questions about plans, programs, environment practices, people, marketing strategies or even technologies can lead to derivative intelligence. Derivative Intelligence is the gathering of mole intelligence from unknowing victims who voluntarily give pieces of information that can do an individual or a company financial harm. Using this technique, work projects, timelines and events that may be disclosed during a job interview could destroy competitive advantage for a corporation.

According to News Release Wire a un-named recruiter said this tactic has been and still is used in Silicon Valley where the competitive environment is extremely intense among technology companies.




Scenario Two:

By creating phony job ads, identity theft scammers hope to fool job hunters into sending them personal information (called phishing) such as filling out an online application that asks for social security numbers and or state identity numbers. Phony job ads often use familiar-looking or convincing company logos fakes and marketing slogans and provide links to fake web sites that appear to be those of genuine corporation. Many legitimate corporations may ask for this information but make sure you thoroughly research the company prior to providing this information. One red flag include charging a fees for services they never intend to make good on. Typically, after a few days the thieves close down the scam and disappear.



On the other hand, many scammers will go in hunt for personal web pages and resumes on public job sites. Once they find what they believe to be an easy target, the con artist will send an email pretending to be a job recruiter. The email will announce that the receiver is an excellent prospective candidate for the XYZ company and that the receiver should reply with a resume and or personal information right away to schedule an interview.



The scam is continued into a phone interview where they will than try to gain their victim's confidence to get personal information. With information such as a name, birthday, city of birth and city of residence a scam artist can locate the remaining needed information to steal an identity. A lot of this information is not required before an in-person interview or even until you have been offered a job with a company.



Tips For Online Job Hunters

1) Never provide any non-work related personal information such as your social security number, credit card number, date of birth or home address, through e-mail, and now it’s often suggested not to include it on your resume.

• No job needs your credit card number
• It’s illegal for employers to ask how old you are
• They may want a job candidate who lives near the job site so do indeed list the city and state you live in. The home address and social security number isn’t needed until you are officially hired.

2) List your resume on a job site that allows only verified recruiters to scan them and uses a privacy policy. Use the first suggestion as a guideline.



3) Verify a prospective employer, recruiter, and or recruiting agency through another source such as the Better Business Bureau or even your local phone book. Try to contact them by phone and visit them in person if it’s a local company.

4) If a prospective recruiter or employer requests a background check, agree to do so only after you have met with them at their company location during regular work hours.

5) You should never have to pay for "exclusive" job leads or for a job itself. Beware of anyone who asks you for money in exchange for finding work for you. There are social networking groups that specialize in specific industries but members are paying for a membership with a basket of benefits such as job leads.


6) If you are paying for job placement services, use a prepaid credit card such as Green Dot. If you do use your regularly used credit card or bank direct payment program don’t start any financial trading until you have been to the place of business in person and have researched the prospective recruiter or job agency.


7) Does the e-mail address feature the company's name? As in JohDoe @ APlusJobServices.com Is the address or locations inconsistent with the area or zip code?

8) Instead of using links from the ad or email, check out a web address by highlighting, copying and pasting the url with www in front (www . APlusJobServices.com)

9) Create an exclusive web-based e-mail address and account for job hunting only.

10) Trust your instincts

Always remember: If it sounds too good to be true it usually is.

Using Key Marketing Tools to Market Yourself on The Job Market

Marketing is the essence of all successful businesses and organizations. Without marketing, no matter how good the product or how valuable a service; the business or organization will fail. How does this little marketing lesson apply to you?

In today’s job-hunting jungle, the most successful job-seekers are those who understand the value of marketing. By applying similar principles in a job hunt you gain better expose yourself to valuable companies by demonstrating that you understand basic marketing.

Tip #1: Marketing is not sales. Sales is a small part of marketing but marketing is a product (or service) that says look at me not buy me. Selling yourself in the job market is certainly an important aspect however this article will expose you to the much broader aspects of marketing that get your resume and qualifications seen. Selling is when you are at the interview.

Tip #2: Believe in yourself. Every good salesman knows that you must believe in your product. If you don't believe in yourself why should anyone else?

Job Hunting Marketing Strategies

MISSION STATEMENT (Career Objective) ~ Develop a mission statement to let employers know what direction your interested in – what are your long-range goals for your career? Through this understanding, employers can see more clearly how your role as a potential company employee can contribute to the further success of the company goals.

MARKETING ANALYSIS (Career & Industry Research) ~ To market yourself to potential employers you need to use marketing techniques used to attract and persuade consumers. But instead of attracting consumers you are attracting Personnel Managers.

Marketing includes research so go online and research what the industry or specific company needs are for your chosen career goals. One stone in a solid marketing campaign is to find out what employers want, then setting out to meet their unmet needs and providing it.

STRATEGIES & TACTICS (The Job Hunt Jungle) ~ There are many viable marketing tools available in receiving interview appointments. The trick is to remember that every conversation whether it last twenty seconds or twenty minutes is a marketing moment in introducing yourself as a successful and valuable professional.

Blogs & Social Networking

Don’t promote your personal profiles; make new ones that are strictly for personal networking and demonstration of your skills and abilities. Use blogs to talk about your industry (positives), the trends, the news and what you think or how you would solve particular problems.

DESIRED RESULTS (Examples of Work / Accomplishments) ~ Would you buy a product you have never seen or heard of? Have a list of accomplishments you have had success in. Have companies of your work available online and in a portfolio.

OBSTACLES & OPPORTUNITIES (Teamwork) ~ Explain how your skills and experience will meet and overcome obstacles in the company. Describe your ability to solve problems that are expected and unexpected and how you can turn obstacles into opportunities. Clarify how you value cooperation and commitment of other individuals and place value on networking with other companies and associations outside of the company.

An effective strategic job-hunting plan is industry-based and employer-oriented. It provides a detailed step-by-step tactical approach for acquiring interviews at quality potential employers. The benefits of self-marketing will far outweigh the time needed to set up a good strategic job-hunting plan. Do what other people are not doing or at least not doing as well as you. Conform, and you’re really nothing special.

Thirteen Useful & Valuable Job Hunting Web Sites

Alumwire.com ~ Focusing on job searches for college graduates and young alumni.

Amiko.com ~ Online resume generator.

AuthenticJobs.com ~ Full-time and freelance web designers.

Care.com ~ Babysitting ~ nanny ~ child care ~ tutoring ~ pet care and senior care jobs.

Bookalesson.com ~ A site for personal instructors in sports and music to find students.

Clickforlessons.com ~ Jobs board for private instructors in sports ~ art ~ music and the like.

Indeed.com ~ Searches several job sites ~ newspapers ~ associations and company career pages.

SeriousTeachers.com ~ Focusing on teachers ~ and schools looking for them but mostly all of them in countries other than the US.

Talentdatabase.com ~ Jobs boards for creative types such as artists ~ actors ~ dancers ~ musicians and much more.

Whototalkto.com ~ Give people leads in to your former job ~ while getting tips on the one you want to get.

Talkbean.com ~ Virtually connecting students and teachers from all over the world.

Peekface.com ~ Read reviews of employers written by people with experience in the same company.

YourOnRamp.com ~ Focusing on career women trying to balance work and a personal life.

Make Sure Potential Employers Read Your Email

Almost everyone uses email everyday to send a quick note to a friend or confirm weekend plans. But as you move from high school (or a non office position) into the corporate arena, the way you use email has to change. This is indeed one of the places where the little details truly matter. Ignoring capitalization may not be such a big deal for personal emails, but writing work related emails in this style is regarded as someone not meant to be taken seriously.

Email is an invaluable tool of communication with potential employers before the initial in-person interview. It is your chance to prove how well you can communicate in text. So while email can be a great tool in landing the job, it can also show prospective employers that you are an irresponsible, careless job prospect.
Emails are meant to be short and get straight to the point of why you are corresponding. Always use a professional salutation, proofread your email three times, and run spell check before you hit "send."

Do Not

• Use shorthand like: BCNU (be seeing you), BTW (by the way) or ROTFL (rolling on the floor laughing).

• Type IN ALL CAPS

• Forget to spell check

• Send attachments to recipients who wouldn't normally receive email from you unless they specifically ask for a attachment.

• Spray & Pray - send the same email to multiple employers
  

Do

• Include a clear & precise subject line

• Clearly identify yourself as the sender and why you are writing to them.

• Send the message only to relevant recipient

• Make sure all links work properly

• Set up an auto-reply if you are away – such as on weekends.

Bad Business - Changing Your Truth

Change your truth and you'll change your world.

"I'm in a slump, do I belong here?"

That's one of the most common things employees say to themselves. From time to time, everyone feels stuck. You may not realize that your professional life is having a negative influence on your personal life. Perhaps, your manager just isn't very motivating. Or maybe you've turned your backs on too many customers that you knew deserved better. Almost everyone has said at one point or anther "If this was my business..."

The feeling of being stuck is familiar to most people, especially when our lives seem to be in motion, but doesn't move us forward. As if the wheels of our cars just continue to spin on an icy road, we need to take care in how we get ourselves out of the dangerous situation.

Here are five of the most common Bad Business actions that hold us back from our professional goals and a happy life.

Believing What You Think, Not What You Know

Studies say that the average brain has more than 50,000 thoughts a day and that most people believe about 99 percent of what we think. Some of our thoughts are the product of our mind manufacturing observations about the world we live in. Other thoughts are stalks that started in our upbringing and grew throughout the culture in which we live.

Our thoughts are what help us make sense of a world that often doesn't make sense. It's only logical that we hold our thoughts to be the Truth and those truths often become our beliefs. We sometimes cling to beliefs whether they make sense of not. Have you ever told someone that you are not good at sports? By saying it, you have made it your belief and so doing, in your mind it is Truth. What beliefs have you anchorage that may be keeping you in a consistent spinning effect?

Ask yourself: What do you think you could never do?

For me, it was surfing. I've never done anything in the ocean other than swim a little at the beach. One day, I took surfing lessons and conquered the belief that I couldn't do any more.

What things do you believe as Truth and what things are actual truth?

Unless you sprout wings you can't fly, but you can fly with a hang guilder or as a pilot in an airplane. Aviation Maintenance Careers

Blaming Others for the Circumstances of Our Life

"The manager is so cheap, I'm never going to have a good life with the money I'm making."

"It's not my fault, I just work here." - This is an actual quote I received from a Shift Manager at a local grocery store last night.

Life will always throw you a curveball. If it didn't, life would be boring and I would be out of a job. The best way to hit a home run is to figure out what the best way to deal with them is. Sometimes the best strategy in winning a game is to make it to first base and wait for the next hit. Some people decide to sidestep the curveballs and choose to wait for a pitch they like better. This isn't reality based view of the world and how it works. It's also not how baseball games are won. You need to see the truth in your life and waiting in the player's dug out won't get you a home run. If you're not good at something, practice, learn how to use your skills or learn new ones.

Determination and lots of practice is what wins the game.

Taking Life Too Seriously & Not Taking Life Teasingly

More than eight years of education teaches us that the key to success is hard work and in today's business world we may as well add, long days and a two hour commute. Just as T comes after S, so should our play time. Follow the old adage: "All work and no play makes Jack a dull person." And we all know what happened to Jack in The Shining...

In order to stay healthy, we need to have fun, laugh a little and remember that life isn't or shouldn't be all about serious matters. A once a year, one week vacation isn't enough for most of us. We need time to charge our batteries and learn new things that may have absolutely nothing to do with business. At these non business events could be the occurrence when we meet that hugely successful professional contact See Networking In Today's World»»

Life a beach; either you can sit back and watch everyone else or you can jump in and have some fun...Maybe meet the person who will introduce you to your dream job.

Living Life In Average

I don't know what's worse, being recognized as the bad employee or being known as average. Average employees stay mediocre, nothing too special. They're like a favorite chair. Not too bad looking but doesn't stand out, it's functional.

One of the most common ways people get stuck is by living their lives as average. They don't stand out, they don't do anything extra and they don't take chances. Rather than taking chances, they prefer to stay in they're comfort zone: by doing things the same way and avoiding change. Unfortunately, as boring as this may sound, it is the way the majority of people live. We don't always recognize it, but the average employees are an extremely crowded assemblage and it's easy to fall into believe that this is all there is.

Get out of that dull room and take some small steps towards the edge. As you start taking steps towards the edge, you'll start new things, see new perspectives and you will begin to recognize the possibilities and opportunities. Once you figure out that Average isn't for you, you'll find that life is much happier and more fulfilling.

You may even have time to pay some baseball and hit a home run.

Fear of the Unknown

Definitions of Fear: Fear is an unpleasant feeling of perceived risk or danger, real or not.

Fear is a powerful emotion. Fear will protect you and sway your decision to walk away from something that could have turned into a deadly incident. Fear is what makes millions of dollars for movie makers. However, fear can also keep us from doing new and wonderful things. Nevertheless, sometimes getting our life on the road that we want takes a leap of faith and we must see that Fear is nothing more than a superficial illusion.

Have you always dreamed about becoming a teacher, or a chef in a four star restaurant? To give those dreams any chance of materializing, you must conquer your fear and genuinely know that you are the only one holding yourself back and your dreams. Do you want to own business, become an artist, or simply get your high school diploma»»? You can do it. You will be successful just by putting forth the effort. If you stop at the door, without ever opening it because of thoughts of failure... you will always be that Average employee.

Don't be left with the question "What if I had tried?"