With only a few days left in the semester, thousands of soon-to-be college graduates are eagerly looking forward to finishing college and securing full-time jobs. It’s no secret that job opportunities are even rarer now than they were only five years ago. Students seeking those few open positions need to be wary of companies that sound too good to be true.
When I first realized I needed to get on the hunt for a true career and leave behind the three part-time jobs I have so thoroughly enjoyed throughout my college career, I didn’t truly know where to begin. So I did what most college students do — look for answers on the Internet.
After several days of searching Yahoo Jobs and Craigslist without much success, I decided to try a new approach. I went to Monster.com and created a personal profile, which ended up being more of a hassle than I wanted to deal with because the profile page had multiple sections where I was supposed to give information regarding my past work history, hobbies and character traits.
Despite the inconvenience, I went ahead and filled out most of the profile sections, uploaded my resume and then waited to see if I would get any job offers. There was even a box to upload a picture of myself and a counter that kept track of how many “employers” had viewed my resume.
At this point, I thought I was all set. Employers would come to me and I would soon have a job lined up.
Well, employers did contact me. I quickly realized, however, that the only ones responding to my resume were life insurance companies.
I have never and will never work for an insurance company or any other type of commissioned-based sales employer. I am much more apt to be a pushover than a pushy person. Not only that, but the e-mails from these companies were going directly into my spam mail folder — a direct indication that they shouldn’t be trusted.
The companies love to throw out big income numbers. Sure, if you’re a really successful workaholic, you might be able to gross more than $75,000 a year, but in the case of an insurance company, that would mean you’d have to sell a ton of policies.
Even though I’m now able to spot these “non-jobs” upon seeing them, I can’t seem to get rid of the e-mails. At the bottom of each one is a message that states something along the lines of, “To avoid future updates from us, please go to our output link.”
The phrase “output link” is written in blue as to indicate that it contains an embedded Web site link. But when I scroll my mouse over the words, nothing happens. So now I’m left with the hassle of trying to figure out how to make them stop.
Posting my resume on Monster.com seemed like a good idea at first, but now I’ve grown to regret it. It causes people who are simply looking for sources of income to become victims of dishonest companies. If something looks too good to be true, it probably is.
Callie Thompson is a communication senior and may be reached at [email protected]
