PostJobFree Blog

Protecting Sensitive Resume Information

2009-11-14T13:29:00.003-07:00

Many job seekers forget to remove sensitive information when they publish their resumes.
PostJobFree tries to identify such information and makes it less visible to the public eye.
At this moment:
1) PostJobFree replaces original resume emails with anonymized email like xxxxxx@r.postjobfree.com
PostJobFree then forwards all emails that come to xxxxxx@r.postjobfree.com to the email associated with your account.
2) PostJobFree replaces last 4 digits in phone numbers like this: 123-456-****
3) PostJobFree replaces SSN with ***-**-****

Only Recruiters can view original information.

If you'd like to make all information in your resume be available for everyone -- clear "Protect my private info" checkbox when you publish your resume.

If you want to hide your private info from everyone (even from recruiters) -- don't include that it into your PostJobFree resume at all.

For example, I strongly recommend not to include your Social Security Number into your resume.

See also: How to delete resume from PostJobFree

Shared IP Address and Access Denied

2009-10-06T20:33:00.004-06:00

Yvonne asked me why she was denied access to PostJobFree.com.

It turned out that she used AOL to browse Internet.
Unfortunately AOL makes their users to share the same IP address and some of AOL users abuse PostJobFree.com services.
PostJobFree denies to serve these "guilty" IP addresses.
That's how Yvonne ended up getting rejected too (even though she didn't do anything wrong).

My recommendation is -- use another Internet Service Provider that don't force users to share the same IP Address.
Everyone should be responsible for their own actions (not for actions of others).

Fortunately Yvonne can use her cable company Cox for accessing Internet directly (without AOL), so Yvonne doesn't share her IP Address with other people anymore. Many other ISP would work well too (SBC/Yahoo, ATT, Verizon, ...).

Please try not to use shared IP Addresses (Internet proxies). That way you would not be responsible for actions of other internet users.

Masking job seekers' contact information

2009-10-03T13:52:00.005-06:00

Q: Why do I see a partial phone number on a resume? It looks like 555-555-****

A: PostJobFree.com tries to limit access to job seekers' contact information.
Only Premium Recruiters can see it.

Recruiters still can contact job seekers for free:
1) Use "Contact Resume Poster" button.
2) Email to job seekers through email like xxxxxx@r.postjobfree.com

Note also, that some resume posters allow their contact information to be unmasked. In that case their contact information is available to everybody.

Don't add keywords you don't need

2009-09-26T12:27:00.000-06:00

When you write your job posting it is usually a good idea to add relevant search keywords to your job posting. That helps job seekers find your job posting.

It might be also tempting to add even more popular search keywords that are not relevant to your job opening. Such practice is called "spamming search results". Please don't do that.

Here's why:
Some posters add many keywords to catch multiple search queries that
job seekers could make in job search engines.
Adding multiple search keywords makes your posting more prominent, but for the price:
many job seekers might be disappointed to see irrelevant posting in search
results and may click "block" on such posting.
That would quickly push irrelevant job posting to the bottom of the search
results. Then the job posting would probably stay at the bottom even for
relevant queries. Irrelevant job posting may also be deleted from search index.

How to setup SPF record to make my emails more authentic

2009-09-15T21:05:00.004-06:00

Q: Why do I need to make my email more authentic?

A: When you create SPF record for your email domain, then:

1) Emails from spammers who send emails using your email domain names would look fake for spam filters.

2) PostJobFree.com would know that emails you sent to PostJobFree.com are in fact from you.

Q: How do I setup SPF record to make my emails more authentic?

A: Please follow steps below.
If you are not technical person – you may show this article to your email domain administrator.

1) On your desktop in MS Windows click “Start” and then “Run”.

2) Type “nslookup” and click “OK”.

3) Black “nslookup.exe” window should open.

4) Type “set query=txt” and press “Enter” key.

5) Type your domain name. For example: “mail.com”
You would see something like:
mail.com
primary name server = pdns1.ultradns.net
responsible mail addr = GGorman.World.com
serial = 2009091302
refresh = 10800 (3 hours)
retry = 3600 (1 hour)
expire = 2592000 (30 days)
default TTL = 86400 (1 day)

6) In the example above TXT record is missing.
TXT records looks like this:
postjobfree.com text =
"v=spf1 ip4:208.43.198.72 ip4:208.43.59.2 a mx ptr include:aspmx.googlemail.com -all"

7) If your domain doesn’t have TXT SFP record – you would need to add it to your DNS records.
See: SPF Record Configuration Wizard.

8) You may see what TXT SPF records other domains use. While in "nslookup.exe" window type:
gmail.com
live.com
youtube.com
etc.

9) The key in creating SPF record is to list all SMTP servers that you are sending your emails from.

10) You may learn more about SPF record here:
http://www.openspf.org/Introduction.

Ask a question / Make a suggestion

2009-08-24T22:59:00.006-06:00

We're always looking for ways to make PostJobFree.com better, so we encourage users to send questions and suggestions.
That's why we added a textbox with "Ask a question / Make a suggestion" button to Recruiter Home, Candidate Home, and Commentator Home pages.
You can simply type your question, hit the button and wait for the response by email.
The response may come much sooner than you think.

Confessions of a con man

2009-08-09T09:55:00.006-06:00

Washington Post interviewed one of Nigerian scammers

Banjo said his most lucrative swindle is the work-from-home scam, which authorities warn is flourishing as the world sheds jobs. In U.S. newspapers and on the Web, he places ads for "pickup agents" or "correspondents." They print out counterfeit corporate checks -- Honeywell is one company whose checks Banjo said he faked -- at $10 apiece and mail them to other unsuspecting folks.

Those victims then cash the checks and wire the funds to the scammer's accomplice in Britain or South Africa -- places less likely to elicit the sender's suspicion. After taking a cut, that person wires the rest to Banjo. Days later, when the bank deems the check phony, the casher must pay.

In good months, Banjo said, he has made $60,000.

Guys like Banjo make job board business harder. We have to spend significant amount of time deleting such scam postings.
At PostJobFree we even created Auto-Moderator that helps us to identify and delete scam postings.

PostJobFree on Twitter

2009-08-08T09:36:00.002-06:00

PostJobFree is on Twitter now.

New jobs would be cross-posted @postjobfree.

“Notify me when somebody commented under one of my job postings” checkbox

2009-07-31T13:51:00.004-06:00

PostJobFree allows job seekers publish their comments under your job postings.
By default every time somebody posts comment under one of your job postings -- you receive notification.

If you don't want to receive notifications about comments under your new job postings -- clear Notify me when somebody commented under one of my job postings checkbox.

Q: Will I receive notifications by email?
Yes, but only if you specified your email address and opened link that PostJobFree sent you in confirmation email.

Enable "Apply for this job" button on my job postings by default

2009-07-30T22:39:00.006-06:00

When you post your job you probably want job seekers to contact you. One way is to specify your email or phone in job description.
You may also add [Apply for this job] button under your job posting.

We recommend adding [Apply for this job] button under all your job postings.
Here's why:
1) "Apply for this job" button saves job seekers time.
2) Because it's faster to apply -- job seekers are more likely to apply for your job.
3) Because it's easy to apply, job seekers like PostJobFree.com more.
4) When your job postings make job seekers to like PostJobFree – we like your job postings and are less likely to delete them and more likely to distribute them to other web sites.

Unless you change your default settings, your new postings will have [Apply for this job] button enabled.

Q: If someone tries to apply to my job posting what happens to the information they send me?

It is sent to you.
Try to apply to your own job -- you'll see what would happen.

To Post or Not To Post?

2009-07-26T07:57:00.003-06:00

Q: What jobs can I post?
If you are willing to pay to someone for a piece of work you need to be done -- you are welcome to post that job opening on PostJobFree.

Q: What I can NOT post?
1) If you plan to ask for any money from job seekers (directly or indirectly) -- don't post.
For example, if you plan to charge job seekers for shipping learning manuals to them -- don't post.
See also how Dogbert sold laptops – postings like that are not allowed on PostJobFree.

2) Pure commission jobs are ok, but that's border line. If you ask job seekers even for 1 cent – don’t post.

3) If it's MLM -- don't post.
The reason why we don't allow MLM postings is that MLMs tend to flood job boards with similar “jobs” and job seekers consider such postings spam.

4) If piece of work you need to be done is illegal -- don't post.
For example, if you need someone to cash your forged check -- don't post.

5) If you are not willing to describe your piece of work in the job posting, and would like to simply post a link to your web site -- don't post.

Q: How do I make job postings to work better?
1) Clearly describe what kind of work needs to be done in case if job seeker is hired.
Job description needs to be sufficient for job seeker to make a decision about applying.

2) Don’t include details that have nothing to do with the job.
Examples of not relevant details:
- Long description of all the things your company does that are not relevant to job seeker’s responsibilities.
- Hype about how well off job seeker would be if she joins your wonderful company (usually such hype is a sign of pyramid scheme).

3) Include keywords relevant to your job opening. These keywords would help job seekers to find your posting.

4) Don’t include irrelevant keywords, because not relevant keywords convert your job post into spam, and spam gets deleted (alongside with your account).

5) Try NOT to include web site links to your job posting. Web site links attract more scrutiny to your posting, may delay cross-posting, and may even cause your account termination.

On the other hand if you are sure that web link helps job seekers to understand your job opening better and points to appropriate web site -- you may add the link. But better not.

6) Allow "Apply for this job" button under your job postings.
That’s default setting, so you don’t have to do anything to keep it that way.

Q: How do I make job seekers to apply on my own web site?
A: Make sure you know what you are doing: if your web site requires too many fields to fill in order to apply -- many job seekers would give up and you would get few (if any) applications.
On the other hand, PostJobFree application form makes it easy to apply. PostJobFree would send to you email with job seeker's message and contact information.
If standard PostJobFree application form is not enough and you still want job seekers to apply on your own web site then consider [Premium Membership] and ask me (webmaster at postjobfree.com) how to make smooth integration between PostJobFree and your web site (ATS).
We may make “Apply for this job” button lead job seekers directly to your web site.

See also: Job Posting Guidelines

Notify me if my job post was not updated for 30 days

2009-07-23T16:11:00.004-06:00

When you post your job –- PostJobFree.com distributes it to several job search aggregators. However aggregators are not going to keep your posting in search index forever. For example, indeed.com keeps only jobs that were posted within last 30 days.
I recommend renew or update your job posting time to time until your job opening is filled.
If your job posting was not updated for 30 days – PostJobFree sends you a reminder (assuming you have “Notify me if my job post was not updated for 30 days” checkbox selected).

Q: If I don't renew my job posting in 30 days -– would PostJobFree delete it?
A: No. Your job posting still will be available on PostJobFree.com, however it wouldn't be distributed to most job aggregators.

Four reasons to comment about job postings

2009-07-23T13:27:00.002-06:00

You just opened job posting and wonder if everything in this job posting is true. It would be nice to get a second opinion about this job, right?
That's why we made it easy to post a comment.

Here are top 4 reasons why you may consider commenting about job posting you've read:
1) Job comments allow job seekers to share with each other what
they think about that posting:
- Is it legitimate job or spam/scam?
- Does recruiter respond in a timely manner or sending applications to the recruiter is like sending them to a black hole?

2) Only you and PostJobFree moderators can delete your comments.
Recruiter who posted original job cannot delete your comments. So your comment will be there even if the recruiter doesn't agree with what you wrote.

3) Your comment is visible to everyone and can be indexed by search engines (such as Google).
Additional visibility may help you establish new business contact or even land a job.

4) Usually when you post your comment -- recruiter who posted original job is notified.
So you can write a comment to contact recruiter (if you don't mind that everybody else can see what you write).

Happy commenting!

PostJobFree AutoModerator

2009-06-17T10:49:00.003-06:00

Recently we implemented PostJobFree AutoModerator. It screens every job posting and tries to figure out if posting is appropriate or unwanted.
Now most of the spam/scam is deleted automatically, which is nice and saves us and job seekers lots of time.
PostJobFree AutoModerator also checks private messages to minimize spam.

Q: How do you know it is spam?
There are multiple signs of problem postings:
- Email that we blocked in the past.
- IP address that we blocked in the past.
- Web site name that we blocked in the past.
But these are obvious signs.

More advanced spam identification feature is based on attempt to read content of job posting.
We calculate what words are typically used by spammers. Here are some examples of scam/scam words: clicking, dads, mom, quitting, spell, legit.

Q: So you delete repetitive postings?
We delete repetitive spam postings. But not only repetitive. Even if job posting is only somewhat similar to other spam postings – AutoModerator is able to recognize it as spam&scam.

Q: Is there some public service or Google API that tells you that text is spam?
I’m not aware of such service. I also don't think that Google would share their spam dictionary. They need to protect such dictionary for their internal use.

"Jobs"

2009-06-14T15:36:00.004-06:00

We delete jobs like this from PostJobFree.com every day.
We even created AutoModerator in order to help us doing it.

Demand for resume and job categories

2009-03-29T01:49:00.008-06:00

Would you like to know which skills are in demand and which are not so much?
Take a look at the chart that compares the most popular jobs and resumes.

What job seekers are searching for?
Take a look at "administrative assistant jobs" background color. It's green. That means job seekers frequently search for "administrative assistant" jobs.
Take a look at "sales jobs" -- the background color is white. That means job seekers are not searching often for "sales" jobs (relative to the number of available sales jobs).

What recruiters are searching for?
Take a look at "pharmacist resumes". The background color is green. That means that recruiters often search for pharmacists (relative to the number of pharmacist resumes available).
Take a look at "warehouse resumes". The background color is white. That means that recruiters are not searching for "warehouse" resumes.

Surplus of resumes
Take a look at the pink bar in "administrative assistant" category.
It bends to the right, toward "administrative assistant resumes".
This indicates significant surplus of "administrative assistant" resume postings over "administrative assistant" job postings.

Surplus of jobs
"Pharmacist" surplus bar bends toward "pharmacist jobs". This indicates there is a relative surplus of "pharmacist jobs" over "pharmacist resumes".

Balance
Note that "Accounting" category is pretty balanced:
- There is no significant "accounting jobs" surplus nor "accounting resumes" surplus.
- Background colors of "accounting jobs" and "accounting resumes" are moderately green. That means that "accounting" job seekers and "accounting" recruiters are looking for each other.

Demand is relative
Note, that this chart shows demand relative to other categories. In today's economy it's not easy to find even relatively high demand job.

Job and Resume Categories

2009-03-21T12:13:00.003-06:00

Recently we added categories to PostJobFree.com
So now you can browse jobs or resumes.
For example, take a look at the most popular sales category.

How do we define list of categories?
We took the most popular search query and used them as categories.

How do we rank categories?
1) The more people search for category -- the higher rank of this category is.
2) The more jobs (or resumes) category contain -- the lower rank of this category is.
3) Rank of job category may be quite different from the rank of resume category.
For example, "mail clerk" job category has high rating: job seekers search for it, and there are not so many jobs in "mail clerk" category.
At the same time "mail clerk" resume category has low rating: few recruiters searching for it, and there are lots of "mail clerk" resumes.

Testimonials

2009-02-20T10:28:00.006-07:00

DevPar Financial Consulting Ltd, Oakville, ON, Canada

Thank you - connected to the person through your web portal. He was in-port off a cruise ship at an internet cafe. Got him into the proposal team for a World Bank funded finance project in Moldova (East of Ukraine) yesterday afternoon. Proposal was emailed last night for closing Friday in Moldova time.
Access to resources and being able to respond quickly is critical to winning business these days.

Jim Chester 905-337-1515
jchester@devpar.com

Forward looking job trends

2009-02-17T07:42:00.003-07:00

Indeed.com created neat forward looking job trends diagram.

Testimonials

2009-02-16T09:13:00.002-07:00

Compteq Inc. Keasbey, NJ

I placed three candidates with the help of PostJobFree.com.
Its really helpful.

Jack Smith, Business Development Manager
646-367-9873, jack@compteqinc.com
www.compteqinc.com

Spam, Scam, and Duplicates prevention

2008-11-03T09:11:00.008-07:00

In the last few months we worked on preventing spam and scam job postings.
There is always room for improvement, but significant chunk of anti-spam and anti-scam measures is already implemented.

Q: How does spam prevention work?
1) PostJobFree.com does not allow job postings that are more than 90% similar to other postings you made.
Note that typical job posting is between 0% and 30% similar to other job postings, so it's unlikely that typical posting would look like duplicate.
See also: No duplicate postings please

2) If your postings are marked as spam by job seekers -- your posting limit goes down.

Q: How does scam prevention work?
When we identify scam job posting (typically money laundering of some form) we either delete such posting or mark it as "scam" (so job seekers could learn to recognize fraudulent postings).

Your feedback
Anti-Scam and Anti-Spam measures improve quality of job postings and make job search more effective. As a result, every job post would attract more job seekers.
Please, let me know what you think about Spam, Scam, and Duplicates prevention.
You may comment here or email to feedback@postjobfree.com.

Are works from home real?

2008-10-26T10:38:00.004-06:00

Q: Are works from home for real?

A: Some work from home jobs are real.
Some others are not really jobs from home, but business opportunities.
Large chunk of these business opportunities are running as pyramid schemes.
Some other job postings are outright scam (for example: cashing fake checks / money laundering).
When PostJobFree moderators recognize outright scam -- we either delete such postings or mark them as scam. Unfortunately we cannot reliably identify all the scam. You have to make your own judgment.

No duplicate postings please

2008-10-21T07:33:00.006-06:00

Job seekers perceive duplicate job postings as spam, because duplicates slow down job search.

Yesterday PostJobFree.com started to check if new job posting has same or similar postings made by the same recruiter. If new posting is a duplicate -- such posting is rejected.
That feature helps to decrease number of duplicate postings in PostJobFree.com database.

See also:
- How to avoid duplicates with multiple locations jobs
- Job Posting Limit
- Spam, Scam, and Duplicates prevention

Fighting scam

2008-10-12T12:48:00.005-06:00

Q: What is scam?

A: Scam -- a fraudulent business scheme.
Scammers not just rob us from money, they also take away our confidence and trust in people.

Q: Why does PostJobFree mark job posting as scam instead of deleting it?

A: We delete scam postings, but we keep some available (and clearly marked as scam) so job seekers could learn how scam postings look like.
Because PostJobFree.com is free and so easy to post -- it's impossible totally eliminate scam postings. That's why it's important to job seekers to be able to recognize scam postings even if that postings are not marked as scam yet.

We understand, that too much scam postings look more like annoying spam than danger. That's why we delete most of scam postings, but still keep some, so job seekers would be able to recognize the variety of currently active scam schemes.

Please, let us know what else can we do about scam postings.
(You may comment below or email to feedback@postjobfree.com)

See also: Spam, Scam, and Duplicates prevention

Update (2009 Dec 06): We don't show examples of scam postings anymore so it doesn't distract job seekers.

Weekly Posting Limit

2008-09-04T21:57:00.003-06:00

Many recruiters post jobs weekly and busy with other tasks on a day to day basis.
To cover that scenario we implemented Weekly Posting Limit.

If you didn't post (or posted little) during last week, then you can post up
to your weekly limit, which is 5 times larger than your daily limit.

If you exhausted your weekly limit, then the next day you still would be able to use your daily posting limit.

What posting limit do you see here? - please let me know.