This Month’s Success Story
The February Success Story is different in that it comes from the entertainment industry. Comedian Margaret Cho states, ” I lied my way into a college comedy competition. I wasn’t even in college, and I won Best College Comic in the United States. I opened for Jerry Seinfeld. He told me, ‘Oh you’re such a great comedian; you should drop out of school.’
How ironic that it took a gutsy lie to get Margaret Cho’s career to take off!
Social Media Can Ruin Your Chances of Getting A Job
Assume that your prospective employer WILL see what they can find out about you on the Internet. It’s very common for HR reps to type in your name into Google, Twitter, Facebook and the others to see what they can find. Many times it’s not very flattering and in some cases it can be downright embarrassing. If you have questionable pictures or posts on a public profile, take them down or make the profile private.
Also, steer clear of negative talk about a
any prospective employer on any social-media platform. Most companies monitor mentions of their brands online.
You may have heard of the case of a Twitter user who posted about a job offer from Cisco but expressed doubt about “the daily commute” and “hating the work.” A Cisco employee noticed the tweet and demanded to know the name of the user’s hiring manager. Needless to say, he didn’t get the job.
It’s recommended that you do a “scrub” of all your social media activities to make sure you don’t shoot yourself in the foot. Here’s a GREAT link to a checklist that will walk you through each site and how to ensure your privacy:
Be Wary: Online Job Scams Are On the Rise
The latest job scam making the rounds on the web is where after you’ve applied for a job you get an email back saying that the company is interested in you but you must first complete an credit check which YOU will pay for. It’s a basic con to get you to pay for your credit report. Don’t fall for this trick! Any legitimate company that wants to run either your credit or your back ground check is going to pay for it themselves. Sadly, there are many people out there that have been unemployed for a long time and are getting desperate.
One of the sample email responses looks like this:
Thanks for applying for our XXXXX position.
We’ve been getting a lot of applicants since it is a professional yet fun position with starting salary of $XX per hour. But we are happy to let you know that we have reviewed your resume and it looks good.
We pride ourselves in being a hard working, credible workplace. Before we can set you up with an interview, you will need to provide a copy of your credit score you have pulled in the last 3 months. You may black out ALL information except your name and date it was pulled.
We have incorporated this policy for all employees at our workplace to ensure our team members are of highest credibility and reliability, because you will be in a high finance environment.
If you have not checked your credit score within the last 3 months, please go to: http://(SCAM SITE URL) and check your score. It’s free during trial period and it will not negatively affect your credit since you are looking at your own score.
Please reply to THIS email after you have done so and I will give you instructions to set you up with an interview.
Regards,
John Doe
Human Resources Manager
ACME Inc
Please remember that whenever you send out your resume on the web, it may NOT be going to who you think it is so BE AWARE and be vigilant.
This Month’s Reader Question
Q: Dear Fake Resume, I finally landed what could be a great job, but they’re going to do a credit check on me. Unfortunately I had one of those interest only loans and recently lost my house. My credit is really bad right now, but I’m confident that I’m the right person for the job. What can I do?!?!?!
LB
A: Dear LB, sorry to hear about your challenging circumstances.You’re not alone so hang in there. Your best bet is to preemptively address this issue with your prospective employer. Since ID theft is at epidemic levels, it would be believable that someone stole your ID and ruined your credit. Recently there was an ID theft group that was stealing people’s credit histories, buying homes, flipping them and continuing the process until their scam fell apart! Can you imagine someone buying a house with YOUR credit?
Your prospective employer can not disprove that you’re a victim of ID theft so that’s your best bet.
Good luck!
2010 Fake Resume Update
The site is getting completely updated for 2010. Please send me any and all questions you have that weren’t answered on the site. Send you questions to:
info@fakeresume.com Thanks for reading! If you know someone who could
benefit from this, feel free to forward it to them!
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