How public do you want your resume to be? As a job seeker, you might think the answer would be along the lines of “very public — the more the merrier!” Surprisingly, a new survey from TheLadders, an online job listing and resource for career-driven professionals, shows that job seekers see privacy as a top priority. 
The survey, commissioned by TheLadders and conducted by Wakefield Research, looked at 1,000 Americans to determine that job search confidentiality is a concern for today’s job seekers. Some key data:
- 88% said privacy is important during a job search
- 55% said keeping their resume private from their peers is more important than making it as available as possible for employers
- 34% would take their resume down from a website if a coworker saw it
- 30% say it would be worse for a coworker to discover their job search than an office romance
- 49% of Millennials (those under 35 years old) wouldn’t accept an invitation from a recruiter or networking sites if their colleagues could see their connections
- 71% of males and 61% of females would not take their resume off a website if a coworker saw it
These statistics are surprising, especially in the Internet age where sharing is encouraged. Though it’s clear that job seekers are concerned about privacy, the survey also showed that 37% of respondents don’t check privacy settings of a site before posting their resume, and 76% believe it’s impossible to keep a job search private.
“A job search can be on eof the most stressful times in an individual’s life,” said Marc Cenedella, founder and CEO of TheLadders. “Those of us in the job industry have a special duty and responsibility to treat privacy with care, because privacy issues are critically important, particularly during economically challenging conditions.”
As a new job seeker, I want my resume as public as possible — it’s on my LinkedIn and on my portfolio, which is linked on my Twitter, which is linked on my Facebook, etc. — so I was surprised to see the results of this survey. However, I realized that if you’re a currently employed job seeker, you would most likely want to keep private the fact that you’re seeking a job elsewhere. Privacy is possible in a job search!
To see the full press release from TheLadders, see here.
What do you think of this survey and its results? Are you concerned about privacy in your job search?
