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How to consider which recruiter to send your CV

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How to consider which recruiter to send your CV and avoid CV risks like Identity theft, cyberstalking or CV misuse

You should consider whom you are sending an application and a CV or when you fill out their web based application form with your CV data.

what's insideAlways remember the famous short tale by Hans Christian Andersen “The Emperor’s new Clothes” and ensure you know what what’s “inside” the recruiter.

Maybe the picture on the left can inspire you – remember to act on your eventual findings – don’t wait for the “the child” telling you the truth late if ever!

 

  • Who is the recruiter or the company – a real or a fake job

Check for the recruites name – No name of the recruiter mentioned – Forget it

Research the recruiters: Fake recruiters watch for news of company layoffs and often use that to look for potential victims finding names on websites or using company emails.

  • Who is the company having the job

See our example of a scam as is might be the best way to tell you about job scams

  • What information are requested by the recruiter

A recruiter would never ask for the following until very late if ever – and you should consider carefully before you hand over this information (and never give a copy)

  • Social security number or central register personal number or similar
  • Password number
  • Picture
  • Mothers Maiden name

and remember never give any money to a recruiter until you are employed.

  • How are they handling my CV data
  • What can the use my CV data for
  • How long time can the keep my data

All of these questions should be possible for you to answer if you look at the recruiters website for their privacy policies and their terms and conditions. Normally a recruiter would also describe the application and test process.

  • How can I ensure they have updated data over time / always ?

If you use Comoto it is easy as we offer a feature that lets you link information in several CVs easy and fast and you only need to do it once.

The team

 

Comoto – How should you handle CV Privacy versus getting a new Job

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Comoto Newsletters

This newsletter is all about how you should handle your CV Privacy versus getting a new Job – what should be considered to avoid risks like identity theft, cyber stalking, scams and other misuse of your CV information.

Last week on the Comoto’s blog we received a complete CV as a blog post with personal data, detailed private information and phone and other private numbers

My first thought was rather negative – but then I started to consider that in a world with more than 200 million unemployed, you might decide to take all risks in the hope of a job and instead I decided to help! Therefore, I have compiled the following advice on how you could handle your privacy issues and on our blog you can find an article with general advice for you to consider – reading more here.

CV privacy
What needs to be done!

As part of your CV Creating, Managing and Optimizing you should always consider which details you should include and/or show in your CVs (in Comoto this is easier, you have detailed control on both). Please read more here, if you should include among other your full address, phone numbers and also how to use a correct email address.

Remember that one of the many strong points on Comoto is the ability to handle both multiple CVs and Web online profiles – therefore, on Comoto you can have different approaches to CVs – CVs with full details, some CVs with limited details and CVs or Resumes with only few private details to be used in the public (web) space. Comoto also makes it possible to control the access to your web profile with a password.

The level of details in a CV can be handled in two different ways on Comoto – You can either make a copy (clone) of your current CV and remove certain parts or you can manage the visibility with on/off switches with the red/green buttons – see the picture

Why should you care about what you show ! Is this important ?

A few statistics and related information on identity theft

It is expected as many as 10 million Americans a year are victims of identity theft. The United States Department of Justice states that in 2010, 7% of all United States households had at least one member of the family at or over the age of 12 who has been a victim of some sort of identity theft. As many other issues this is now spreading all over the world – consider this happened for you! (read more here).

But what can happen if your identity has been stolen!

  • 47% of victims had trouble getting credit or a loan as a result of identity theft
  • 19% of victims had higher credit rates and 16% had higher insurance rates because of identity theft
  • 11% of victims say identity theft has a negative impact on their abilities to get a job
  • 70% of victims have trouble getting rid of (or never get rid of) negative information in their records

You can find out more about identity theft and how to handle it here.

Similar precautions to which information you show in your CVs/Resumes should be considered when you publish or share/send CV information or update your CV/Web profile.

Carefully consider if there are there any information that could harm you or somebody else – read more about the correct levels of details in your CV here and read more about the correct time to update your CV/Resume here

Now you properly have made the appropriate number of CVs – worked with the CV Data and the layout (template) and you are ready to start using the CV – you have taken the correct precautions, considered the proper information for each CV and are ready to share it with everybody in the world – or are you ?

I am afraid there are way too many job scams, fake jobs and bogus recruiters and suspicious CV databases (see our evaluation here) out there you should consider first. I have collected some relevant information and tips for you here

Your Privacy is important for Comoto

Remember, at Comoto we regard our user’s privacy very high and give you numerous options and features to help you handle your CVs/Resumes privacy – like you can have many CVs – for example (and remember the CV Data can be intelligently linked for easy updates). For example

  • One CV without many details that can be broadly used
  • Another CV with more details for X, targeted for a specific job type
  • And one made for your current employers file (to illustrate you can build your CV history/log on Comoto)

You can have many web profiles – for example

  • One or more profiles with very little details for public access – see here what to include and not to include
  • Other CVs with little differences – yes why not have several – each made with a different password

The Comoto CV Manager also ensures your privacy

  • All access to your information in password protected (remember to have a strong password – here)
  • All information on the Comoto CV Manager application is secured (try here)

In the next version – which we are working hard to finish – we will be adding further features for you to be in full control of your CV/Resume privacy and risks involved in the management of your CV/Resume.

Thanks for your time – comments and suggestions will be highly appreciated
Kren, CEO

My name is Lorem Ipsum and a I have just been contacted by a headhunter regarding my nonsense CV!

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My name is Lorem Ipsum and a I have just been contacted by a headhunter regarding my nonsense CV!

nonsense CVIn the last couple of weeks I have illustrated some of the dirty tricks and issues with CV’s and the job process and I have with examples illustrated that both candidates and companies not always behave with the appropriate ethical standards and moral – but what about the CV database owners and their behavior?

Comoto have over the last couple of years tried to learn and understand our competitors and potential partners better. To evaluate features offered by these we have on a regular basis added a profile to their CV databases. To ensure that the administrators of these CV database understand that these CV from us is only for testing we use names that makes it clear for the reader that it is for test purposes only. We use names like Test Tester or Lorem Ipsum and the CV’s data field’s, text or resume template is without any doubt complete nonsense.

Even though we believe it is clear for everybody that nobody could have any interest in our test CV we have received many emails from CV databases providers informing us that our CV is or have been of interest to some of their customers and therefore we need to do particular actions – actions that only have the purpose to illustrate for the CV database’s customers that their CV are more often updated, their users are alive and also more active than the candidates actually are!

This questionable behavior and by purpose deceiving emails have been received from many CV databases and also some of the biggest CV Monsters of the industry as well as international players of the CV Industry and clearly illustrate that several of these CV database providers have built automatic systems to generate an artificial interest in your CV / Curriculum Vitae for you to be positive and use that particular CV database and/or to perform their wanted actions.

From our side we believe this behavior is another example of why you should take control of your Resume dialog and manage your Resume, Resume Templates and your job process carefully as well as to protect your privacy.

For you as a candidate the above described behavior also have the negative side effect that you over time will stop reacting on mails from CV databases – unfortunately and in particular if the contact was actually correct and valid.

If you have experienced similar behavior or other doubtful actions to increase a CV database traffic and user interest please let us know at theteam@140.82.38.88

BTW: – For your information – Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s – like “dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. In non tellus eros. Vestibulum ac nulla nibh, at posuere leo. Proin mollis blandit lorem eget consectetur. Maecenas sodales vehicula odio, vel commodo neque adipiscing a. Sed ac dolor suministros turpis. Maecenas tincidunt skabelon aliquet massa, malesuada como to adipiscing justo egestas vitae. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus”

My name is Lorem Ipsum and a I have just been contacted by a CV Database regarding my nonsense CV!

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My name is Lorem Ipsum and a I have just been contacted by a CV database regarding my nonsense CV!

nonsense CVIn the last couple of weeks I have illustrated some of the dirty tricks and issues with CVs and the job process and I have with examples illustrated that both candidates and companies not always behave with the appropriate ethical standards and moral – but what about the CV database owners and their behavior?

Comoto have over the last couple of years tried to learn and understand our competitors and potential partners better. To evaluate features offered by these we have on a regular basis added a profile to their CV databases. To ensure that the administrators of these CV database understand that these CV from us is only for testing we use names that makes it clear for the reader that it is for test purposes only. We use names like Test Tester or Lorem Ipsum and the CVs data field’s, text or resume template is without any doubt complete nonsense.

Even though we believe it is clear for everybody that nobody could have any interest in our test CV we have received many emails from CV databases providers informing us that our CV is or have been of interest to some of their customers and therefore we need to do particular actions – actions that only have the purpose to illustrate for the CV database’s customers that their CV are more often updated, their users are alive and also more active than the candidates actually are!

This questionable behavior and by purpose deceiving emails have been received from many CV databases and also some of the biggest CV Monsters of the industry as well as international players of the CV Industry and clearly illustrate that several of these CV database providers have built automatic systems to generate an artificial interest in your CV / Curriculum Vitae for you to be positive and use that particular CV database and/or to perform their wanted actions.

From our side we believe this behavior is another example of why you should take control of your Resume dialog and manage your Resume, Resume Templates and your job process carefully as well as to protect your privacy.

For you as a candidate the above described behavior also have the negative side effect that you over time will stop reacting on mails from CV databases – unfortunately and in particular if the contact was actually correct and valid.

If you have experienced similar behavior or other doubtful actions to increase a CV databasetraffic and user interest please let us know at theteam@140.82.38.88

BTW: – For your information – Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s – like “dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. In non tellus eros. Vestibulum ac nulla nibh, at posuere leo. Proin mollis blandit lorem eget consectetur. Maecenas sodales vehicula odio, vel commodo neque adipiscing a. Sed ac dolor suministros turpis. Maecenas tincidunt skabelon aliquet massa, malesuada como to adipiscing justo egestas vitae. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus”

How to consider which CV database to send your CV to avoid CV risks like Identity theft, cyber stalking or CV misuse

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How to consider which CV database to send your CV to avoid CV risks like Identity theft, cyber stalking or CV misuse

You should consider which CV database you are sending a CV and when you fill out a CV databases  web based entry form with your CV data

CV risks

  • Who is the CV database – a serious player

Research the CV databases for reviews, number of jobs, owners, etc. Fake CV databases watch for news of company layoffs and often use that to look for potential victims finding names on websites or using company emails.

  • Who is the company having the job

See our example of a scam as is might be the best way to tell you about job scams

  • What information are requested by the CV database

A CV database would never ask for the following until very late if ever – and you should consider carefully before you hand over this information (and never give a copy)

  • Social security number or central register personal number or similar
  • Password number
  • Picture
  • Mothers Maiden name

and remember never give any money to a CV database (until you are employed).

  • How are they handling my CV data
  • What can the use my CV data for
  • How long time can the keep my data

All of these questions should be possible for you to answer if you look at the CV databases website for their privacy policies and their terms and conditions. Normally a CV database would also describe the application and test process.

  • How can I ensure they have updated data over time / always ?

If you use Comoto it is easy as we offer a feature that lets you link information in several CVs easy and fast and you only need to do it once.

The Team

How to prepare before you send CV to a company and avoid CV risks like Identity theft, cyber stalking or CV misuse

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How to prepare before you send CV to a company and avoid CV risks like Identity theft, cyber stalking or CV misuse

Comoto CV Risks

You should consider which company you send an application and a CV to company or when you fill out their web based application form with your CV data

  • Who is the company – a real or a fake job

Check for the company: – No real or searchable company mentioned – Forget it

 

Research the company: Fake company watch for news of company layoffs and often use that to look for potential victims finding names on websites or using company emails.

Se our example of a scam as is might be the best way to tell you about job scams

  • What information are requested by the company

A proper company would never ask for the following until very late if ever – and you should consider carefully before you hand over this information (and never give a copy)

  • Social security number or central register personal number or similar
  • Password number
  • Picture
  • Mothers Maiden name

and remember never give any money to a company until you are employed.

  • How are they handling my CV data
  • What can the use my CV data for
  • How long time can the keep my data

All of these questions should be possible for you to answer if you look at the company website for the company’s HR privacy policies.  Normally a proper company would also describe their application and test process.

  • How can I ensure they have updated data over time / always ?

If you use Comoto it is easy as we offer a feature that lets you link information in several CVs easy and fast and you only need to do it once.

The Team

Comoto‘s aim is to become “The Central Place” where you can create, clone, copy, manage, backup and distribute your CV and Cover letters fast and easy. To create your first Comoto CV, signup for free and just add your data (or use one of the many easy import features), pick one of our special designed templates, preview your CV and finally export to your favourite format (.DOC – .PDF – .PNG) or publish it in a Web Profile (Public/Private). Now you are ready to have full control of your CV. Notice other unique features – like multiple CVs – a few clicks and you can create a CV targeted for a specific job or Export to many different formats.

How to ensure the correct time for CV updates to avoid CV risks like Identity theft, cyberstalking or CV misuse

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How to ensure the correct time for CV updates to avoid CV risks like Identity theft, cyberstalking or CV misuse

How can you ensure your CV is not to updated to early?Comoto update CV

To early updated can bee if you publish company secrets or internal information from you current employeer.

Have you considered what would happen if your current employer or your current employers competitor got hold of your (updated) CV? Or a Colleague?

  •  Dont show your responsibilities for a new secret project a bit to detailed
    • For example – working on Apple TV or Microsoft new car – craxy examples or is it – see what happened in HP here
  • Dont show a new responsability or a new job if the person having the position have not been informed yet.

To detailed can bee you show to much details in your CV – but that you handle easily on Comoto with our multiple CV feature – read here – even smarter if combined with the Comoto Commenting system – read here.

Besides the above examples have you ensured what you state is correct and understood correctly – both in the yeses of a recruiter and in the eyes of your current employer – ensure this by using the Comoto verify feature – read here

The team

Comoto‘s aim is to become “The Central Place” where you can create, clone, copy, manage, backup and distribute your CV and Cover letters fast and easy. To create your first Comoto CV, signup for free and just add your data (or use one of the many easy import features), pick one of our special designed templates, preview your CV and finally export to your favourite format (.DOC – .PDF – .PNG) or publish it in a Web Profile (Public/Private). Now you are ready to have full control of your CV. Notice other unique features – like multiple CVs – a few clicks and you can create a CV targeted for a specific job or Export to many different formats.

How to ensure the correct level of CV details and avoid CV risks like Identity theft, cyber stalking or CV misuse

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How to handle your the correct level of CV details to avoid CV risks like Identity theft, cyber stalking or CV misuse

How can you ensure your CV is not to detailed?

To detailed can bee if you publish company secrets or internal information from you current employer.

Comoto CV risks

Have you considered what would happen if your current employer or your current employers competitor got hold of your CV? Or a Colleague?

  •  Don’t show your responsibilities for a new secret project a bit to detailed
    • For example – working on Apple TV or Microsoft’s new car – crazy examples or is it – see what happened in HP here
  • Don’t show a new responsibility or a new job if the person having the position have not been informed yet.

 

To detailed can bee you show to much details in your CV – but that you handle easily on Comoto with our multiple CV feature – read here – combined with the Commenting system – read here.

Besides the above examples have you ensured what you state is correct and understood correctly – both in the yeses of a recruiter and in the eyes of your current employer – ensure this by using the Comoto verify feature – read here

The team

Comoto‘s aim is to become “The Central Place” where you can create, clone, copy, manage, backup and distribute your CV and Cover letters fast and easy. To create your first Comoto CV, signup for free and just add your data (or use one of the many easy import features), pick one of our special designed templates, preview your CV and finally export to your favourite format (.DOC – .PDF – .PNG) or publish it in a Web Profile (Public/Private). Now you are ready to have full control of your CV. Notice other unique features – like multiple CVs – a few clicks and you can create a CV targeted for a specific job or Export to many different formats.

How to decide which CV details and personal information to include in a CV

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How to decide which CV details and personal information to include in a CV

You have to consider the information you should include in your CVs and remember on Comoto you have a multiple CVs feature (see here). Remember to make the evaluation for each CV based on purpose and receiver?

Comoto Lock

Should you include:

Name

On a public profile you could consider only showing your first name or an abbreviation for first or surname.

Full Address

You should leave out the precise home address completely off your public resumes for Identity Theft reason – read here. Afraid you wont be contacted – today all communications happens by e-mail and by phone!

Email

Depending of your current email provider and email address you should consider having a job email address. On a public profile you should definitely consider which email to use as it properly will be hijacked and spammed. You can either create a temporary email address or create a specific free email address (like Gmail) for this purpose and forward received emails to your normal mail (for gmail forward see here).

Email provider – Certain email providers will not be accepted by all spam filters – just consider how disappointed you will be if you learn your application ended in a spam filter.

Email address –  How would you regard you email address – showing your are a serious person. Avoid words like lover, girl, boy, motor, gold, father, etc.

In fact, we encourage you to use a separate e-mail account for your job search also to be able to isolate job related e-mail – both in general and for security purposes. It also makes it easy to keep track of job correspondence.

Twitter, Facebook and other social network information

This is more difficult and depend on the social net and how you use it and what a reader would find out about you there. I regard a researcher would be able to find the information easily therefore you should consider (as always) what you show on a social network – read more here about the conflict between “Ambitious CV, Party Animal on Facebook!”

Phone number (land line or mobile)

In a public CV I would consider before I show a land line number as it is easy to get your address. Mobile I would consider leaving out and ask for contact by email but it would depend on the situation.Comoto CV RIsks

Social security number or central register personal number or similar

Simple – never show or give away before needed as part of a (real) job contract signing

Tax payer number

Simple – never show or give away before needed as part of a (real) job contract signing

Password number

Simple – never show before needed as part of a (real) job contract signing and never give away your passport

Picture

Difficult – there are numerous evaluations of the effect of having a picture or not but that’s outside this pages purpose on privacy. On a public profile I would not show a picture as it could be misused.

Mothers Maiden name

Simple – never show and never give away

Drivers’ license number and information

Simple – never show or give away before needed (not number but the information you have one) as part of a (real) job contract signing

Bank account number or the information that you have one

Simple – never show or give away before needed as part of a (real) job contract signing

What about specific information about:

Height

It can unlawful for an employer to ask for this information.

Weight

It can unlawful for an employer to ask for this information.

Religion

It can unlawful for an employer to ask for this information.

Marital status.

It can unlawful for an employer to ask for this information but is often stated

Professional license number.

I would just inform that you have a special license if relevant

Gender and Age

Notice it can unlawful for an employer to ask for this information. Your name will often tell reader your gender. Age I would show as leaving out often raises more thoughts and your age is a fact you can hide but every day change to the better or worse!

The reason why you left a past employer

Considerations will depend on the actual reason but I would recommend it should on be mentioned briefly if relevant – else I would wait for an eventual interview to explain.

The team

 

It’s all over the news that Armstrong lied – but actually 46 % CV lies or false information in their CV/Resume a recent study shows!

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Comoto Newsletters

Lance Armstrong lied do you? – NO…
It’s all over the news that Armstrong lied – but actually 46% have lies or false information in their CV/Resume a recent study shows. Read below on how not to be regarded as a liar in your CV/Resume! Lance Armstrong’s many years of lying have put focus on lies as well as incorrect information from famous people once again. Quite similar to the focus the now former CEO of Yahoo had when he lied in in his CV some time ago – (see here).

Study shows 46% “errors” in CV/Resume.
As mentioned, a recent study showed that 46% of the CVs/Resumes submitted by job applicants contained some kind of false information. It also showed that 21% state fraudulent degrees, 29% have altered wrong employment dates, 40% have inflated their current salary terms, 33% are using inaccurate job descriptions and 27% used false references. At Comoto, we are surprised but not chocked as other surveys and studies have shown similar levels of fraudulent behavior. Actually, I still remember that one fact from a UK study that really surprised me – that the female rate of whom that use fraudulent information is higher than male!

Anonymous Survey
With these high percentages it would be interesting with further studies of this – including one missing though important factor that to needs be measured: the rate of applicants whom by purpose omit important but negative facts or information. Therefore, we would like to survey our users in general (anonymously off course) about lies in their CVs/Resumes and for this purpose we have constructed a small survey – please attend the survey here: http://comoto.questionpro.com

Comoto can help
At Comoto we believe in keeping the truth and do whatever we can to reduce this bad behavior – and remember when fraudulent behavior is discovered in a CV/Resume it normally results in very serious consequences for the person – one example is the – yes, now former – CEO of Yahoo – an outcome which everybody who is taking the easy road should consider as well as the implications for his/her further career, if any further career. For an employer it is equally bad and the consequences on the employer’s professionalism, brand and ethical standards can be widespread therefore every employer should do their homework and for example check references and documentations. For you as an applicant there is not anything more annoying than losing in a job process for that a particular job to someone you later learned was dishonest!

Guide to a better CV/Resume
At Comoto, we believe that keeping some of our overall guiding principles helps always help finding the right person (and right for both the application and the company) – for example

  • Have a full CV/Resume not just a public profile to ensure a detailed precise evaluation basis

A applicant is it important to make sure you don’t send the wrong signals hereby increasing the likelihood that somebody reading your CV/Resume regards you as omitting false information or worse (lying!)

  • Make sure your CV/Resume always is fully updated (easy on Comoto for now and in the new version we kick a…)
  • Make sure your CV/Resume and other public information is consistent – it is OK with differences in level of details (use a remark). Another reason for not only having one but having several CVs/Resumes (and intelligent linked data like on Comoto)
  • Try searching yourself and read it together with your CV/Resume with the eyes of a recruiter – any red lights or can any text be misunderstood?

Verification Feature
Comoto launched the CV/Resume verification feature (see here) to offer our users tools for improving their CV/Resume quality hereby helping our users in getting that particular job they want.Comoto Verify

The verification system can be found on the page for your Web-profile in the Comoto CV Manager (see here)

The principle behind the CV/Resume verification tools is that you can ask a former boss or colleague to verify (confirm) that the particular text you use in your CV/Resume for a past job, education or…is correct also in their opinion. An example is shown to the left.

Comoto VerifyYour CV/Resume – in your public/password protected Web-profile will then show, that this information has been verified by a specific person.

You manage the verification and decide if you want to show the verification on your public or password protected Web-profile.

 

 

 

 

 

Comoto VerifyIf you choose so it can be seen publicly on your Web-profile like the example to the right.

If you want to read more about the verification feature here or if you want to test it on your CV/Resume log in here and go to your Web-profile.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for your time – comments and suggestions will be appreciated

Kren, CEO

CV/Resume Study:
As mentioned, a recent study showed that 46% of the CV/Resumes submitted by job applicants contained some kind of false information. If you want further details on the recent study – go here.

Honesty is a virtue
Earlier as part of our CV Funny blog we have shown an example of full details in a CV/Resume – it is rather
funny – go here

Privacy – ”You have no privacy. Get over it” – or handle it!

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Privacy – ”You have no privacy. Get over it” – accept it or try to handle it – if that is possible at all!

PrivacyThe above quote from the CEO of Sun in 1999 seems to be more evident than ever – after a week where it was illustrated that Apple is tracking our phone calls and our geolocation – just one week after Facebook was advised to “better protect its users and improve overall security” by Sophos is seems more then relevant to touch this important subject, once again.

In several blog posts I will focus on and describe several privacy issues and especially their effect on your CVs and job process related risk and behavior – it is as very difficult balance between giving and controlling information, being open or being closed in behavior!

Some of the subjects I will comment is:

  • Public / available information
    How to find the right balance between being found by headhunters on social networks and not show to much information making it possible to misuse the information.
  • Cyberstalking
    Is an increasing problem and often it is easy to find the necessary information in your CV to either harass you or stalk you.
  • Your web history is being tracked with cookies and other smart tools
    Who to seem what and when – what if shared
  • Search engine results
    What can We find out about you if we search you on Google and others – if the information is not the same as in your CV – what is the correct information and how can you – or can’t – change the search impression
  • Social networks
    We all love social networks – the LinkedIn of this world  – but what happens if your network is with the wrong guys ?
  • Fake job offers
    Increasing in numbers trying either to get you to do something you should have avoided or just to get information from you – see my CEO comments here on this matter LINK
  • CV Database scams
    Inventing traffic on the CV Database site or fake interest in you – can make you make the wrong decisions – see my CEO comments here on this subject LINK
  • Spam
    An old friend – still there and stronger than ever!
  • Bacn
    The new recipe – mails from a provider where you accepted – or did not remove the check-mark within the 44 pages standard terms – is increasing and drowning you in mails missing the important one

Please let me know  if I should take similar matters into consideration – feel free to mail us at theteam@140.82.38.88

CV databases system often irritates me – also you?

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CV databases system often irritate me – also you?

I have to say I am sorry for the person, who actively wants to search for a job – it is an extremely tedious process!

Comoto will offer solutions to reduce this tediousness – making it faster and easier for you to send in the information – but unfortunately we can’t do anything with all the unnecessary questions and requests for information you are being asked to answer or deliver.

As an example – In our region of the world we have a very popular CV database / Job Application system that asks if you have a particular youngster driver license for a moped (required for those between 16 and 18). This question is asked independent of your age or other driver’s licenses. Why not start with the most common option and ONLY if it makes sense then ask the additional questions.

It would also be simple to add some links between your job interests or actual job position – and add some intelligent links between your age and educational level to ensure you get asked the right question and thus having a smooth experience using these CV database / Job Application systems.

But this seems not to be the case – therefore we need to add these data request to Comoto for you to be able to feed / forward / link the data to your favourite CV or resume databases.

This example is just one illustration of the lack of intelligence in the systems but sometimes also the people behind these systems could also be better in their planning and prioritization of data request instead of having a system that must fit everybody – i.e. questions asked for particular industries needs to be answered by all users (or actually not answered).

I look forward to present in details some of our forthcoming solutions in making Comoto the central place for your CV management – as we wants Comoto to be the best CV Builder / Creator and CV Manager for you.

CV Inconsistencies between Google and your CV!

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Be aware of any CV inconsistencies between Google and your CV!

CV Inconsistencies Well, is it a lie or is it a mistake when your CV is not consistent with easy search able information? The judge of that I think will be the recruiter not you!

Have you ever considered checking your CV
data and other information – which can be found within seconds on the Internet – and compare that to your CV data. It can be titles, responsibilities, task carried out or exams that you state but a search engine source shows differently hereby pinpointing a potential conflict or breach in
data consistence.

At some time during a hiring process either the recruiter or your potential new colleagues might do some checking or preparing before meeting you, and your CV can be completely correct as the search information might be outdated but when it happens the doubt have been raised and they might as a consequence prefer another candidate.

The best idea would be to do the same tests yourself – and remember not only on Google, also test some of the other search engines as well as industry specific pages and other relevant sources.

Remember to search as if you were a headhunter – it might be that the job and title you claim you have is also shown by somebody else – and make other similar logical tests.

If you find some information you would like to have corrected or deleted which I doubt you can – but it might be worth a try – then the second best thing you can do is to be prepared and have a good and reliable explanation to the inconsistency in the information.

The Comoto Team

 

You fight to protect your data and take care of privacy – but your password stinks!

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How many passwords do you have ? Take care of privacy!

take care of privaciesIt seems that the world can be divided into two – those of us who have 1 password for everything and those of us who have 3 passwords. The later – which actually used to include me – have a short one for fast access, a in-between and thus more protective password for those more private logins and a third and complicated password for the bank accounts and other important stuff ! Remember to take care of privacy!

How can I make that postulate – unfortunately some at the large hacks of password at Sony and Gawker showed that a lot of the people using both systems used the same
password – and please notice that the passwords on these systems were not encrypted –
anybody working at these sites or at similar sites could actually see the
password. It should be an unspoken requirement that passwords are encrypted (at
Comoto your password is encrypted and we cannot see it – we take care of your
privacy).

How strong is your password ?

A strong password would for instance be 2hCP7quTEufK – where qwerty12345 is not. Making passwords like that is not always easy and I have personally started to use Roboform to generate and remember my passwords (I choose Roboform password software because it works in my IE Explorer and Firefox and both on Mac and Windows as well as my phone and my tablet). If you don’t like or dont trust password software then start using some logical combining and higher numbers of characters – for example combing a complicated password 2hCP7qu**** by changing the last 4 characters with something related to the site or use – 2hCP7qu**** becomes 2hCP7qucomo at Comoto.

You can test the strenght of your password here.

You might wonder – why a password is important on a CV builder and CV databases – first and foremost because it is your data and privacy – but have you ever considered
what could happens if somebody you didn’t know, started using your data and CV just to harm you  – applying for a job in general, mailed an application to your
current employer’s worst competitor or…. I will leave it up to you to think about
other nasty examples – or use the time instead to make sure you have a proper
password strategy.

I have just found the perfect job!!

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I have just found the perfect job

– and spent time on an application – but the dream job was a fake just to attract attention to a CV or Job database!

perfect jobIn the last couple of weeks I have illustrated some of the dirty tricks and issues with
CV’s and the job process and I have with examples illustrated that candidates,
companies and also the CV database providers can have doubtful behaviors !

This week I will continue to illustrate misconduct from CV database owners – the subject for this week is an example from our home country as a large recruiting company
here had guidelines that each of their departments should have at least 25 job offers – and if they did not have enough actual jobs they should simply invent some fake jobs!

Regrettably – this example is not the only example but seldom have the misconduct been as clear a part of the corporate guidelines – it seems to be an often used practice for some headhunters, CV database providers and even companies  to show they are successfull.

To avoid any doubt this is illegal in Denmark and will be prosecuted should anyone get any smart ideas!

How can you avoid being misused by a fake job provider – sorry to say but you can’t – but if you believe it might be the case for an interesting job wait a few days before applying or call the provider to check – and hereby you also might get additional information – as the provider often will not spend time explaining anything to you if the job is a fake.

Remember, if you as a candidate applied for a fake job you will often be told – sorry but you are not relevant for that job – but remember to add your CV to our database – and apply again as your background is relevant for these types of jobs. Hereby you are not only wasting time but also get the wrong advice, you might also believe you wrongly have had a chance for getting a particular job or that particular type of job is available . Unfortunately if neither of these facts are correct as you might be taking erroneous decisions for your  future career!

I really hope you will not encounter a “fake job” and if you do, that you will discover in time and save the extra work that it brings with no result at all.

Cheating and lying in CV – fake job offers – CV database misconduct – an increasing trend or ?

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Cheating and lying in CV – fake job offers – CV database misconduct – an increasing trend or ?

At Comoto we believe being honest in your CV pays off, and believe that you should not be worried about your CV data and/or your application. I will in over the next period – in my comments – show you some examples of what I believe should be avoided and hopefully thereby give you some thoughts to consider about your privacy and secure use of CV databases. Remenber at Comoto you can stand out with verified CV information – See Comoto Commenting Feature.

lying in cvFake Jobs!

One of the latest fake job offer schemes was actually quite successful in several countries – see http://www.sierra-express.biz/ (I am afraid or hope the page will be closed some day). After applying you would receive a full contract in your own local language and shortly after employed – but actually you will only be handling the export of stolen goods (becoming a mule for them) to the guys behind the scheme. Therefore, make sure you do your homework  and prepare – preparing means more than reading the home page – because as this example shows you can make a site that looks trustworthy in a few hours. The right advice will be – if the job is too good to believe, it is probably fake.

At Comoto.com we also regret every time one of our users loose an interesting job opportunity to a competing candidate whom might have “blown to much hot air” into his or her CV – therefore we will soon be launching features to support your CV’s quality and ensure the CV will be judged correctly as the right CV it is.

Season Greetings from Comoto

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As the holidays are approaching and 2012 comes to a close, I want to thank you for being a part of Comoto. The Comoto team would also like to wish you Happy Holidays and use this opportunity to show you a glimpse of the new version of Comoto that will be launched shortly.

First, I would personally also like to say thanks for all the positive feed backs we receive every day and especially the many suggestions received from all of you – mails ensuring us that there is a strong need for and interest in a CV manager helping and guiding you in creating your CVs/Resumes – and I am sure you will see that many of the suggestions have been added to the new version that we are proud to show you in this and the following newsletters. By the way – if you would like to become a beta tester please email me.

Looking back, it is only a few weeks ago we celebrated our 100 weeks anniversary of the launch of Comoto and we want to celebrate this not only with the new CV Manager application shown below but also with a new look and feel on our main website which in the future will be divided in two different areas – one area for people interested in freely downloadable CV Templates and one area for guidance and help in using our Comoto CV/Resume manager to for you to get the optimal CVs/Resumes.

As we strongly believe that a CV/Resume is not something done once but it is actually an on-going process that should be a planned and managed and we also believe that you should get a new job based on a full well constructed CV/Resume and not just a short profile – we have done our best to ensure that you can easily build multiple intelligent linked full CVs that are easy to manage for each relevant job process. We have spent a lot of time working on how to help you in this process and also how we can guide and help you as much as possible in this process.

In the future we will be using the labels CREATE, OPTIMIZE and MANAGE to ensure you will be guided much better in the process of creation and the handling of your CVs/Resumes.

To make the creation of CV/Resumes even easier for you, we have also added a unique import feature on top of the LinkedIn and Europass import features. But will be able to read much more on this new Import feature in a later Newsletter.

As our CREATE, OPTIMIZE and MANAGE process will ensure you much better CV/Resumes it is of great importance that you can start effectively using your CV/Resumes. This feature we call SHARE – we have and will continue to make it much easier for you to use your CVs/Resumes and keep not only yourself but also the receivers of your CV/Resumes updated. How we can do this is still a secret for a couple of weeks, but look forward to this exciting new feature!

Words or labels does not do it on their own – as mentioned we have been analysing the use of our application and have spent a lot of time improving the help and guidance features.

You will receive extended help functions when you enter a new feature and detailed help as well as mouse over texts, hints and even on page examples when entering a page for the first time. We will also be sending you suggestions for your best next step in your process of getting the optimal CVs/Resumes – but remember that on Comoto you can always decide if you want our guidance or not.

As mentioned above words does not do it on their own – the same saying can be used for your CVs/Resumes – looks and first impressions also matters – therefore, we have reworked our Templates completely, which assures you the highest possible level of freedom and flexibility working with our Templates.

We have made it possible to make a live preview based on your own CV Data Set, before you make it into a file that you want to share with other people, and you can even see them with a lot of interesting CV/Resume examples that we made for you in the new version.

Behind this change is actually a collection of new technologies which makes the Templates much more dynamic and also editable. You can in the new version use a Template as it is or make it your own by changing for instance colour schemes, font types as well as other details. Your own Template can then be used on all CVs/Resumes you have in the application or you can make one Template for each CV/Resume you have.
If that is not enough and you want more flexibility you can now EDIT your final CVs/Resumes in Comoto. More info on this exciting new feature will follow in in one of the coming newsletters.

I hope this has shown you a glimpse of the exiting new things that will happen with Comoto and we are looking forward to an even more exciting 2013 helping you CREATE, OPTIMIZE, MANAGE and SHARE your CVs/Resumes.

Seasonal Greetings and best wishes for the new year from

Kren, Ceo of Comoto and The Comoto Team

Do you need a fast CV or the right CV?

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Do you need a fast CV or the right CV?

Need a fast CV now or a well considered and specific targeted for that one particular job you want! – by the way this is what we call a Comoto CV clone.

Seeking a new job is not just about sending the usual and standard CV you made ages ago – most of the time it requires an evaluation and maybe a Curriculum Vitae created/build especially for that particular job opening.

Sometimes you just need a fast CV, here and now because you have been contacted by a recruiter or found a job opening through your network – with Comoto it is a matter of seconds to send one of your CV’s (and if you don’t have one yet you can import it from LinkedIn or Europass in less than 32 seconds our latest tests shows).

But as mentioned most of the time you have enough time to consider and prepare the optimal strategy for the application and accompanying CV – what is important for you in the job, why are you the perfect candidate, which are the skills needed, which are the skills to emphasise – are some of the questions to ask yourself. Use an existing Comoto CV to create a clone (our word for a copy as you copy sorry clone everything – not just the text but also the structure, etc.) change and add to ensure all the considerations you have made in advance are covered – save and test several templates – which designs fits you and the situations best (if none send us your ideas) – before you pick the optimal one.

Impeccable reputation – Mine is! – but what about my social network!

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Impeccable reputation – Mine is! – but what about my social network!

But the guys in my social network might not be likewise!

impeccable reputationsHave you ever considered making a comparative link between your CV and the connecting thread of your strong skills and your objective description and the people in your social network?

Have you ever considered how a third party would look at your network – it could be as harmless as your friends showing a pictures  of you or friends who have radical or bizarre viewpoints (depending on the eye of the beholder) – would this be interpreted as negative with respect to a particular job?

To avoid any unwanted negative consequence, it would be recommended to look at your social network on a regular basis or ask somebody to take a look as if he/she was a third party looking at your profile.

The obvious alternative would be to have several profiles with a nickname for the fun parts and a serious one with your real name – but this would in many social networks be a violation of the Terms of Use – for example at Facebook “Maintaining multiple accounts, regardless of the purpose, is a violation of Facebook’s Terms of Use”.

Therefore, sometimes it is better to think before you act.

Differences between CV templates, example, design and sample used in relation to a CV

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CV templatesWhat are the differences within using the terms CV Templates, Sample, Example and Design, when working with your CV – and what are actually your needs?

Have you ever considered what the differences are when using these terms, because these terms are used differently and might create a lot of confusion and misunderstanding. Have you decided how you will use them and how they fit into to your vocabulary?

To give you some inspiration we will try to describe how we see the differences between the terms in the following article.

Comoto has a clear distinction between the terms and their functionality.

Template

A  template is a fixed format for your CV to present your data within a certain structure.

The advantage is that you don’t have to change any data to see or use another Template – just change the Template with a few clicks and see the effect.

Actually in Comoto the phrase “fixed format” would be wrong as we gives you the option to save Word format and change the final version as you like. This can be useful especially for page formatting and minor changes.

At Comoto we give you access to download our templates for free if you prefer to use them manually, but we strongly believe that you soon learn the advantage of using our builder instead – just a few clicks and you have created a new CV with your already existing CV data.

Example – the text

We use the term Example to describe a CV with texts describing actual jobs, experiences, objectives and professional summaries. Often without any thoughts of presentation. We have also examples here of text you should consider or not consider.

An example could also be an example on a specific job type for instance a salesperson example and how it is valid to write a CV for these types of jobs. We do not show live examples containing actual candidates data (but you can find them if they are made public by the owner).

Sample – the outcome

We use the term Sample to describe an illustration of how a CV could look like – i.e. how it would be presented to the receiver. This is typically with dummy content so no real content just the design and structure  showed to you with dummy content.

For example we have small sample pictures illustrating all our templates and designs, that would be called samples by us.

Design – the graphical parts

The Design of a CV is the term for the presentation format for your data. At Comoto we give you the option to either leave out or add graphics to pinpoint your strength, your belief or interest – or simply an option to make the CV more personal and compelling to look at.

The advantage of having your Data separated from the Template and Design is that you don’t have to change any data to see or use another template – just choose another template to see how it looks, and remember exporting your data to another template only takes a couple of seconds and can be done with “one” click by you mouse.

Hope this has given you and idea on how we see the differences between Templates, Samples, Designs and Examples.