How to Know If a Job is a Scam

Job Search

Jan 22

It’s a brave new world out there, especially with so much of our work and life moving to a digital landscape. Never before have scams been so rampant in the hiring world. The sad reality is there are bad actors out there attempting to steal your personal information and money during one of the most stressful times of your life - job searching.

Today, I want to take some time to address how you can protect yourself and identify when a job (or a recruiter) is a scam. Here are some red and yellow flags.

Job Scam Red Flags

Using Fake Profiles to Pose as Recruiters

The latest scam artists are using real photos of other recruiters and creating profiles pretending to be them. They then use those profiles to reach out to candidates on platforms like LinkedIn. If a recruiter’s profile has little activity, few followers, and no active jobs posted, it may be a fraud.

One way to find out is to do a reverse image search using Google.

Recruiter Says Your Resume Isn’t ATS Compliant

This has got to be my favorite scam technique (am I allowed to have a favorite… oh well). If you apply for a job and the “recruiter” reaches out to you to tell you that your resume isn’t ATS compliant and that you need to purchase resume services to fix it before you can finish applying, it’s a scam. There is no job. They’re just fishing (or is it phishing) for your information and money.

This one I find funny because they always seem to have a friend who just happens to write resumes. Imagine that, lucky me!

Lack of an Interview Process - Job Offered Too Quickly

Unless you are referred to a job at a small organization, you can expect an interview or two (or seven in some cases). If you receive a job offer right away without interviewing, you can bet your two-buck chuck that it’s a job scam.

Hiring is a large investment for companies and they don’t usually like to gamble. They want to make sure their investment pays off, so any job that doesn’t have a due diligence component (aka, interviews), is most likely a scam.

Job Title of the Company Representative Doesn’t Exist

If someone from a company reaches out to you to request your resume or information, pay attention to their job title. Some scammers are terrible at their job (if you call it that). I once found a scammer pretending to be the VP of Sales at the US State Department. I hate to break it to you, but there is no VP of Sales jobs at the State Department.

Some are less obvious than this one, so keep your wits about you.