Spam Spam Spam Spam

Well, my job search is going well.

I got an email this morning from a prospective employer informing me that they’re considering me for the position of Account Manager, and could I please call them to arrange an interview.

I was just about to delete it, for reasons I’ll explain in a moment, when I noticed the answering machine light was flashing. I checked the messages, and the first one was a call from the Director of Human Resources at the company who had sent me the email I was reading.

This made me feel a little better about the email, so I’ll give them a call tomorrow.

So, why was I just going to delete the email? It was a job offer, and someone in my position can’t really afford to turn down any lead.

Spam, that’s why.

You see, I’ve posted my resume on multiple job search websites.

The way these are supposed to work is I post a resume, and the website finds jobs that are suitable depending on my qualifications and preferences, so every time I log on, I get a new list of possible jobs in my area. Also, my resume is available to employers so if they’re looking for someone to fill a particular post they can search through suitable resumes and contact me if they’re interested in hiring me.

Good, huh?

Well, not really…no.

You see, like pretty much anything on the interweb, this kind of service gets absolutely ruined by spammers. All of the scams and crappy ‘work from home’ businesses simply go onto these kinds of sites and send out millions of emails to pretty much everyone with a resume registered.

These emails have your name cut and pasted in, tell you they’ve looked through your resume and are very interested…and once you email or contact them, you get one of the following:

1. Work from home! Earn $10,000,000,000,000 a week working just 15 minutes a year!


2. We’re interested in hiring you for our dynamic, synergistic, proactive and globalised team! Just send us $100 to cover expenses and we’ll send a representative to your home!


3. Get paid to take online surveys!

Obviously, I’m not falling for a work at home business that suggests you can earn the entire gross domestic product of the USA per week, and anyone with half a brain knows that you never work for anybody ho asks for money for an interview up front…I’m not even going to comment on the ‘online survey’ thing.

Basically, with so much spam, I’m extremely suspicious of any job offer that lands in my inbox, unless I personally wrote or called and asked them for information…and considering I’ve sent off about 25 applications in the past week, it’s a little hard to keep track!

Anyway, I got the Account Manager message a little too late today to get in contact right now. I’ll give them a call tomorrow and see what they have to say.