At the last Arras People / Maven Training event, part of the discussion was centred around making sure people protect their professional profile whilst looking for a new project management role. Times have changed, especially with online media now playing such a huge part in recruitment process added to which during the downturn some hungry recruiters are looking for any angle they can to attract a new client and earn a fee.
In an age where we hear stories about identity fraud, keeping control of your personal details is more important than ever. A CV potentially holds a lot of personal details – your home address, telephone number, date of birth (although that shouldn’t be the case now) in some cases people even include their National Insurance number. Yet whilst people seem to be aware of identity theft, there generally seems to be a disconnect when it comes to distributing their personal data in the form of a CV!
There came a warning from Melanie Franklin, CEO of Maven Training, who shared with the audience her own personal experience from the days when she was a practicing programme manager with an attractive set of niche skills. Much to her dismay she became aware that her CV and profile was being banded around organisations in her sector by a number of agencies without her consent. To make matters worse she was not actively pursuing a job change at that time and she believes it took over 2 years for her to regain control of her profile!
Some agencies have a practice which is a little like a “show-and-tell”, in other words if they have (can find) a “good CV” they will use it to try and open the door to organisations by saying “hey look at the great people we have access to, why don’t you use us as your recruitment partner”. Often the candidate or job seeker has no idea that their details are being used in this way – they’ve lost control of their professional profile.
Whilst this practice is unprofessional and also against the REC (Recruitment and Employment Confederation) code of conduct, which states that “Members and their staff must ensure that permission has been obtained and documented before disclosing, displaying, submitting or seeking confidential or personal information.” be aware that some recruiters may send your CV without your expressed permission to prospective clients .
In the case above, Melanie felt like she had no control where her details were turning up, in fact it took her nearly three years before she stopped coming across instances of her CV being put in front of clients for roles she had never heard about nor wanted. Looking back, she realizes that she had not considered the implications of posting her CV when looking for a new role especially how that information may be used by other parties.
So how do I gain a new project management role if I don’t send my CV to agencies?
Well yes, it’s a classic catch 22 if you look at it like that. We are not suggesting that people stop applying for roles; we are just suggesting that people think about what they are doing and be aware. Our top tips would be;
- When applying for any advertised role, be selective. Understand who the agency is and check their data protection policy.
- Keep a record of all your job applications, the date you applied, the version of your CV and the agency that you sent your CV to.
- If you register your details on a job board be aware that hundreds of agencies (and in todays climate Employers) pay £££ to search these databases. So you have no way of ever knowing who is looking at your data. You have even less chance of knowing who might be using your details as a “show-and-tell”.
- If you become aware that your CV is being used without your authorisation find out which agency has done this and make a formal complaint.
- Remember that you can request that any agency remove your data from their database.
- When you have found a new role remember to remove your details from job boards and update the agents that you have been using to tell them that you are no longer active in the market.
Image © TheBlackbird and used with permission.
