Confidential Employment Advertising

seeker · February 2005

Our company needs to post an employment ad without revealing our company name.
We would like to have responses by e-mail, but we cannot find a suitable existing e-mail address to use.
The newspaper only provides "blind" P.O. Boxes, not e-mail addresses.
Does anybody have a simple solution that could be implemented within a few hours?

HR in CA · February 2005

What I have done in the past is to use my personal e-mail. With my service I get up to 8 e-mail addresses. I set one up with a nondiscript name and when the posting period is over I close the account. It takes about 10 minutes to do this.

marc · February 2005

Set up a free email account in yahoo or hotmail or one of those. Very fast and easy. You can name in whatever you like.

seeker · February 2005

Thank you. Right after I posted this message, one of the people in the office said the same thing & that's what I did. I was a dummy & didn't think about that...

mushroomHR · February 2005

Yahoo!, Hotmail, mail.com, there's a lot of anonymous e-mail providers you can use to set up a temporary address.

Don D · February 2005

Novel. I haven't ever considered using this type of approach. Or, you could instruct them to leave a resume in a plain envelope by the middle pump, third gas island at Chevron at the corner of Mission and Union. Frankly, I would balk at sending a confidential resume to a mystery email address. A blind PO Box or the Newspaper's box is one thing, but this..................?

seeker · February 2005

We must replace the current employee ASAP without anyone at the office aware of the process. We prefer not to wait on snail-mail.

Judith · February 2005

Your email address could be something such as [email]resumes@hotmail.com[/email] and you could even keep it for the next time around.

LarryC · February 2005

Seeker, let us know if any of your current employees respond to the ad.

seeker · February 2005

That's really not possible, this is an extremely small office & everyone knows about it except the person being replaced...long story...there sure are a bunch of smart-alecks on this forum.

TN HR · February 2005

this is an extremely
>small office & everyone knows about it except
>the person being replaced...

I find this false sense of reality, at minimum, laughable and more along the lines of hysterical. Do you really think you can keep the cat in the bag? How do you know the person isn't already aware of what is going on and perhaps plotting his/her exit strategy. Maybe they are waiting to stage an accident or perhaps steal confidential/proprietary information.

In any event, it sounds like the smart alecks on this forum have offered several viable options. Better hurry and execute before the person finds out.

seeker · February 2005

"...lean not on your own understanding."
An axiom was drilled into me many years ago: know what you don't know.

SMace · February 2005

Everyone but her knows? No way. I bet she knows.

seeker · February 2005

You lose your bet. Pay up now.

SMace · February 2005

You've got to gimmee some more time. I can feel the cat clawing it's way out. BTW, what are we betting?

stilldazed · February 2005

I'd be curious to know if anyone responds. I don't think I would--trustingly send my name, home address, phone number, and a summary of my work history to a blinded destination that I would not be able to link to an employer. I don't think so. On the resume sending side, I typically want to have a sense of confidence that the employer is an employer, even a reputable one.

Maybe I'm spoiled, idealistic, and have just never been desperate for work. I would think it sounds too much like an invitation for identity theft.

Don D · February 2005

My point exactly! Who would respond to something that looked as fishy as this? Especially from a female named Joe. Hmmm. But, I must not lean on what I know. If I were in that big of a hurry to replace somebody, I would terminate them. What's the value of having them sitting around another day or two? Welcome to the forum Lady Joe. After awhile, you'll loosen up and learn to join in the fun. We learn from each other and have fun doing it.

HR in CA · February 2005

The last time I did this type of job posting I received 150 applications. I would think twice about sending my information as well. However, at the time this area was experiencing double digit unemployment. Desparation makes people do crazy things.

seeker · February 2005

I didn't think about the identity theft...thank you for that insight...given that, it doesn't sound like a good idea.

cats in TX · February 2005

this is an extremely
>small office & everyone knows about it except
>the person being replaced...

And I thought that HR was always the last to know

stilldazed · February 2005

Only at my company!

Confidential Employment Advertising

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