Thursday, April 14, 2011

Job postings that aren't what they seem

In the past week, I've received numerous emails from Career Network www.career-network.com.


The first email stated:

Hello Bethany,

I have recently reviewed your resume online and believe you would make a great addition to our company.  We are currently looking to hire an individual in the Beaverton area who has previous human resources experience. If you would be interested in applying for the position please fill out the application at the link below:

Human Resources Position

The position requires that you have advanced computer skills, can communicate information in a clear and simple format and have the ability to solve problems in a timely manner.  The expected starting annual income is $35,000 and up.

Thank you,

Beth Lynch
Regional Hiring Manager
This seems like a perfectly legitimate email but I have no idea who this person is and there is no mention of the company that is hiring. The email made me wary and I googled the company name followed by the word "scam". The fact that there were numerous results made it clear something was fishy. I went back to look at the email again and noticed that below the signature (where most of us don't really look) was the following:

This is a Career Network Feature Job which acts as a job aggregator for one or more positions. Please refer to the feature job link on the application for more details.
If you look at the job posting carefully, you'll see that it is called a "feature job". What does that mean according to their terms and conditions?

Feature Jobs.  The job description appearing on the prior screen is a description of a Feature Job. A Feature Job is not an actual job. Rather, it constitutes a representative description of actual jobs contained on the Career Network's web site that you can apply for once you have completed Career Networks' Job Application. Upon completion of the Job Application screens, you will be taken to a screen that contains job descriptions of employer posted jobs, and you will be able to elect which jobs, if any, you want to apply for. You application will automatically be sent to the employer whose job is listed.

I have not determined whether there are any real job postings if I submit my application. I don't feel comfortable applying to a company that has job postings that aren't real.