I used to wonder what happens to our resumes when we send them out to people or post them online.Do they get seen? Do they disappear into cyberspace? Do they get filed away somewhere in a big hope chest of resumes? What really happens to our resumes when we post them online?
If you post your resume online or email it in response to a job ad, your resume usually gets stored in a database. This database could be a job aggregator like USA Jobs, CareerBuilder, etc., or it could be an applicant tracking system for a company or staffing agency. Just because you do not get a response to your job application, it doesn’t mean that nothing is done with your resume.
This means that you want to be careful who gets access to your resume and the information on it.Many people eagerly post their resumes on a job board or career site only to be contacted for jobs they do not want, such as franchise opportunities or life insurances sales or other jobs that require you to put thousands of dollars down to get started (pyramid schemes as I like to refer to them). One thing that job seekers can do to avoid the overabundance of junk or spam mail is to create an email separate from your personal ones for just this purpose. If the company is interested in you, they will email you. However, be sure that you regularly check both your email inbox and spam for messages from potential employers.
Putting your resume on LinkedIn is also another way for your resume to be a live, working, career portfolio for you.As LinkedIn can be used as an online version of your resume, it will still be working for you even when you aren’t in an active job search (as long as you keep up with your profile and don’t ignore it). LinkedIn is also a great way for you to network with employees from companies you want to work for.
It’s good to remember that once your resume is ‘out there’ in cyberspace either on a job board, or LinkedIn, it will stay there until you remove it. Be strategic about where you put your resume and you will have better results.
