Staying Safe When Uploading Your CV Online

When it comes to sharing your CV online, you should be selective about the personal information you make available, and informed as to how the information you do include will be accessed and managed. Regardless of whether you’re uploading your CV onto a job board, an online portfolio or on a social media platform such as LinkedIn, you should always do your research and review the information on your CV before you press upload.

In this article, we’ve put together some key things to consider when sharing your CV online to help you protect your personal information. 

Review Your CV Content

If you’re making your CV available to view publicly on a job board, online portfolio or social media profile, you need to review the content that you’re including first. To protect your information and to also protect yourself from recruitment bias, leave the following things off your CV:

• Date of birth
• Full address (or town and/or county only instead of a street number)
• National insurance number/passport number
• Banking details
• Contact details of your referees (to protect their information too)

It’s also a good idea to use a slightly different name or version number in the title of your CV for every site you upload it to, for example, JoeBloggs-CV-5.pdf. This way, if someone contacts you out of the blue about an opportunity, you can ask to see the CV they’ve got and determine where it came from. 

Research the Organisation

Always do your research on the website you’re planning on uploading your CV to. It’s a good idea to look at the following things:

• Reviews both on and off the website and even on social media
• Check the site has a privacy policy that explains how your information will be held - you can read PharmiWeb’s privacy policy here
• Search the company on Companies House to check they are a registered business

Create a New Email Account for Jobs

Setting up an email account specifically for your job search means that if your account is ever compromised, the information that can be accessed is limited. This is also a great way to help keep track of and organise your applications so it’s a double win. 

Click here for more advice on creating a professional email address. 

Use New Passwords

Once you’re sure that a website is legitimate and you’re ready to create an account, use a password that you’ve not used before. It’s best practice to use a new password for every account you make, regardless of whether this is for job hunting, online banking or social media, as if one of your passwords is compromised, all the accounts linked to that password may be too.

Use a different password for every account you make, and find a secure way to store them such as by using 1Password. 

Review Your Privacy Settings

Once you’re ready to upload your CV online, review your privacy settings to make sure you know who you’re giving access to your information to. Most job boards will allow you to choose whether your information is shared publicly or privately, and platforms like LinkedIn even let you customise your settings down to who sees your surname and profile photo. 

Similarly, if you’re uploading your CV onto your own website or portfolio, consider how your website can be found. For example, could it be found on search engines, or can it only be viewed when a link is shared?

Keep Track of Your CV

If you decide to upload your CV to multiple places, it’s important to keep track of where you’ve uploaded it to and who can access your information. Not only will this help organise your job search, but it will also mean that if you’re contacted by a recruiter later down the line, you can check if they’re someone you’ve consented to share your information with and that their interest in you is legitimate.

This will also be helpful for when you aren’t job searching, as you should remove your CV or disable your accounts for sites that you’ve previously uploaded to. You can always reactivate the account later along with an up-to-date version of your CV. 

Receiving Job Offers

If you start to receive emails or calls from recruiters and prospective employers with job offers or requests for further information, always be careful with the information you provide. To check if job offers are legitimate, do the following:

• Check the email address - the offer should be sent by a company email address and not a personal or completely random one
• Check the company’s online presence - as we’ve already mentioned, do your research on the company, read reviews and check its social media platforms
• Check if the salary is unrealistic - although some salaries will be competitive, make sure you’re aware of the industry standard so you can clearly see if an offer is too good to be true

You should always be wary of any recruiter who asks you for a form of payment for things such as security checks. You should never be asked to hand over money for job applications, especially so early on in the process, so this is also a real red flag.

Do Your Research…

Uploading your CV onto job boards, online portfolios and professional social media platforms can be a really great way of letting recruiters find you and match you with relevant opportunities, as long as you do your research and understand where you’re putting your personal information, and how it can be accessed.

Visit PharmiWeb.Jobs for more careers advice for pharma and Life Sciences job seekers.

To stay safe in your job search we recommend that you visit SAFERjobs, a non-profit, joint industry and law enforcement organisation working to combat job scams. Visit the SAFERjobs website for information on common scams and to get free, expert advice for a safer job search.