Making your resume public on job boards, could be a good idea or not so good idea.  Not too long ago, I received a call at about 9PM from a recruiter in a *different* country representing a firm from *another* state, for a job in my state.  It happened to be when I had a fever of 103F and to be honest, I was not happy.  What did I do?

In the midst of the fever, headache and confusion, I was tempted to just hang up.  But I listened to what the recruiter had to say anyways, (because you never know when opportunity strikes)!  After finding out their client was a company that I already had direct communications with, I kindly let them know that (so that they won't interfere with the job search), and thanked them for their consideration.

Then I immediately signed into all the job boards and made my resume PRIVATE.  One might ask me why I would do that if I am looking for jobs/gigs?  Well I've had my resume public for years, and after years of digging through endless amount of spam, odd calls at odd hours (even weekend nights), being mistaken for a non-citizen (unfortunately a target for a low paying jobs), being contacted by those who really didn't look at my resume, then this call this late from another country--pretty much made me say, "Enough is enough."

It is a matter of preference and what works for you.  For me, having my resume public, meant spending a lot of time (which I cant get back) digging through emails and taking phone calls for irrelevant jobs. In addition, I find that many don't actually look at my resume before contacting me.  For example.. I check-marked that I can work anywhere in the United States, but probably because of my "foreign" name, I often receive questions for details of my citizenship, visa status, where I was born, U.S. residency, etc.  I rarely say this because I know people don't want to be liable for this, but the truth is… that IS discriminating and nobody should have to go through that.  I also write location preference.. but receive job/temp info for other locations across the country.

After awhile, I started to ignore emails that look like mass spam or non-legit.  If it doesn't look like an email personally written for me, I don't write back.  I also have checked marked that I prefer to be contacted by phone, so if they ask for personal info via email, I usually don't risk responding.  Sometimes ignoring odd calls won't do good anyways, because they will continue to call and email until you answer.

So my best bet was to make my resume private and search for relevant jobs under my own terms.  It's been a few weeks since I've done so, and it has been quite nice.  Yes, it is a trade off from possibly receiving info for opportunities not listed, but I have saved so much time (and phone costs!).

For job hunting tips to maximize your job search on and beyond job boards (also useful if you're a recruiter), I wrote an entry on that: 

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