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Headhunter sites are regularly trolled by pyramid schemers. I know, it's illegal. Well, modern day schemers have figured out how to make it legal by walking the line.
For example, they would contact you for a group interview. It's more like a presentation where they throw out a bunch of "facts" of how much money they make in their line of business. By the end of the presentation, you would still have no idea what the hell the job is for. But nobody wants to look dumb, so nobody ask anything. Then they would have individual interviews where they shower you with compliments.
After lots of compliments, they will tell you that in order to hire you, you need to take a few classes from them to learn the trade. They never tell you how much these classes cost unless you ask. This alone should raise a really big flag in you. And even then, there's no guarantee that they will hire you.
A couple friends of mine were looking for a job and were contacted by these scammers. After they attended that presentation, they were excited. That's another thing about these scammers. They prey on job seekers who are desperate. Seeing how skeptical I was, they gave me the info and I attended the next presentation.
I know what I'm about to say may sound egoistic, but I consider myself a highly adaptable and intelligent person. I have the career background to prove that. Well, I sat through the presentation and by the end I still had no idea what the hell the job was about. They presented plenty of graphs and impressive earning figures.
When it came to the individual interview part, I was told exactly what my friends told me, that I had to attend a couple training classes they have before I can be considered. Boy, did he shower me with compliments. I kept waiting for him to tell me how much it cost to attend their training classes. He never mentioned it. When it was time for me to ask question, I only had 2 questions for him. (1) If I wasn't invited or never submitted my resume, how come he knew I was extremely intelligent and perfect for this career? (2) How much does it cost to attend one of their training classes?
Answer to #1: There was no answer. He went on a tangent for about 5 minutes with no real answer.
Answer to #2: He was taken aback by my question. Obviously, not too many people ask this question. Again, from beginning to end they clutter you up with random info so that you don't think of important details like how much to attend one of their training classes.
So, for #2, he again went on a tangent telling me random info about their classes. I kept on pressing for an answer and he finally told me it was $5k to attend one of their training classes.
Why don't we hear more about this scam? For several reasons.
(1) I checked and believe it or not it's not illegal for these guys to do this kind of thing to desperate job seekers.
(2) They stay under most people's radar. Remember that while the number of unemployed are high, percentage wise they still make up a small portion of our society.
(3) Victims of this sort of scam are usually too embarrassed to speak up. This goes for victims of many scams. Heck, I've been hustled out of $100 by a cute looking young man I met at a bar. It took me years to admit this to anyone.
All this having been said, I strongly urge everyone who reads this to be extra careful when you put your info out there. If it's too good to be true, it's probably is.
My first real job out of college with no experience came from posting my resume on Craig's List. I wouldn't really recommend it, because at this point, I still don't know how I lucked out. I'm still at the same place over 7 years later looking to move on to bigger and better things, but to be honest, I don't know where I would be now if I didn't get that job after a 2 1/2 year job search. Call it a desperation move. Prior to that, I had done Monster, Dice, Career Builder and probably others. I had attended one of those pyramid scheme meetings after someone contacted me from seeing my resume. Ugh. They don't make it sound like that before you go. I didn't sign up for anything or give anyone any money from their pitch. I was wiser after that.
My point is, be careful if you stick your neck out there. There's a lot of bad out there, but there's also the slimmest of chances you can get something out of it. No one can predict exactly what will happen for you.
Monster is a complete waste of time. Just looking it at reeks of BS. CareerBuilder is worth trying out. I use Indeed to find companies I'm interested in and favorite those company career pages and just check those out every few days. I had a good 20 companies favorited and would see whats new. Indeed isn't the best for job search because often times, the posting isn't new but its new to Indeed. Like, Indeed pulled it today but it was posted on the company site three weeks ago. LinkedIn is solid as well.
There are legit jobs on careerbuilder you just have to apply to them by searching a certain field. The sales and insurance jobs are only when you post your resume on the site.
Even if the odds are a thousand to one of you finding a job by posting a resume online, that's still better odds than not doing anything. The job sites are free and only take up a bit of time, nothing more. Just be aware of the scammers out there - Indian recruiting companies trying to steal personal info are the current big one in STEM fields - and give it a whirl.
As for the main sites, Career Builder and Indeed are decent, but Monster is way past its prime and badly needs to get its together or simply be bought up and remade into something else.
It's much better to apply for the jobs than posting your resume. Your inbox is cluttered with scams by posting your resume. Picking the job posts and applying has always garnered more relevant results.
Maybe use them just for an indication of which companies are hiring then contact those companies directly or go through your network and see if they have those openings or better ones.
I mostly got e-mails about contract jobs from out of state. Nothing from official companies, but only from recruiters.
I had the same results. I do know a former co-worker that had a resume posted on a job board and was contacted by Sirrus radio. He landed a 100k job with them, but this is the exception, not the rule. He had specific certifications and expereince they were looking for.
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Originally Posted by Rambler123
Just be aware of the scammers out there - Indian recruiting companies trying to steal personal info are the current big one in STEM fields - and give it a whirl.
The very first thing I did when I started applying for jobs was to put freeze my credit, it protects me from anyone open new accounts against my name. I had to temporarily unfreeze it twice so far, once for a background check and once to buy a car. I highly recommend freezing your credit as well.
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