Illustration courtesy of Defne Inceoglu
As this academic year draws to a close, students looking toward their graduation with be flooding the job market looking for exciting opportunities to start off their careers. Many of them will head straight to the internet to kick-off their job search, relying on online career seeking services to put them in touch with potential job opportunities. While convenient, these services often collect a massive amount of data about their users, and not everyone takes the time to read privacy statements. With this in mind we decided to investigate some of these platforms to determine who they are, what they offer, and what kind of security risks they pose users.
Monster
Monster was founded in 1999 and is one of the most popular career seeking websites in the world. According to their website, twenty-nine resumes are uploaded to the site, 7900 jobs searched for, and 2800 jobs viewed every minute.[1] They offer a career advice centre and have a wide international reach.
What you need to know. Monster makes it unclear what happens to your information when you choose to delete your account with them, which means they probably store it all. This leaves you vulnerable to data breaches well after you delete your account, and Monster has fallen victim to multiple substantial data breaches in the past.
Indeed
Indeed aggregates job postings from a variety of job boards, making it a one-stop shop for finding opportunities. You can have a job digest sent to you every few days, outlining recent opportunities in your field and area of interest. Indeed sees over 250 million unique visitors per month, and adds 9.8 jobs to its listings every second. It also offers a blog featuring information about job seeking, career trends, and other related issues.
What you need to know. Indeed makes it clear that it maintains all of the information it collects about you after you terminate your profile. As explained above, this means you remain vulnerable to potential data breaches whether or not you continue to use the service.
WhoPlusYou (Magnet)
WhoPlusYou is the career seeking portal for Magnet, which was co-created in 2014 by Ryerson University and the Ontario Chamber of Commerce. This not-for-profit focuses on connecting employers with local communities and individuals. Their particular focus is on serving students, younger people, disabled persons, newcomers to Canada, Indigenous peoples, and other individuals who face barriers in the job-seeking process. They offer a blog with career information, and resources for specific users and communities, such as a toolkit for helping Syrian refugees integrate into the Canadian job market.
What you need to know. In order to fulfill its aims of helping connect underemployed communities to career opportunities, Magnet collects more information about marginalized status than other career seeking platforms. While Magnet does not sell or share any of the data it collects (save with potential employers), it also is unclear what happens to your profile once it is deleted, meaning that there is a chance this sensitive information will remain vulnerable if you close your Magnet account.
Workopolis
Workopolis was founded in 1999 with the goal of helping Canadians find jobs, with a particular focus on providing services (and finding employment) in both French and English. They provide a blog with features broken down into helpful and searchable categories (“Job search,” “Resume writing,” “Interviewing,” “Negotiating,” “On the job”).
What you need to know. Workopolis won’t sell your data, but they will share it with others. Unlike most other career-seeking services, you can request to have all your data scrubbed from their servers when you terminate your account with them.
Glassdoor
Founded in 2008 with the aim of increasing transparency in the job-seeking process, Glassdoor now sees 64 million unique visitors every month. The service is perhaps best known for its employer review feature, which allows employees (past and present) to leave honest reviews about their experience working for employers. Glassdoor also offers a platform for sharing questions asked in interviews with specific companies, allowing applicants to better prepare for the interview process. They also offer a blog featuring posts about career-seeking and navigating the workplace.
What you need to know. Glassdoor shares your information with “affiliates” in order to provide “personalized content… as well as other promotional content and services.” In plainer terms, this means Glassdoor shares your non-personal information with advertisers to allow them to show you personalized ads. You can’t opt out of cookies on Glassdoor, and they will maintain your information on their servers even once you delete your account.
Before you use any internet service, it is important to know what you are getting into. In the case of career-seeking services we are required to pass on lots of information, from our addresses to our entire histories. It is important that we share this information only with services we trust. Always do your research.
Happy job hunting!
[1] “About.” Monster.com. Accessed March 28 2019. https://www.monster.com/about/.
Interested in learning how to leverage social media to help you land a job? Check out our Job Hunt tutorial here!
Written by Samantha Summers
Edited by Defne Inceoglu
Image Illustration courtesy of Defne Inceoglu
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