How to Avoid Job Scams & Employment Traps

Job seeking has been quite difficult for freshers with an increasing number of job scams and unemployment. It may even be a problem for an experienced professional. No matter in which phase of life you are, there is always a possibility that you will be looking for better opportunities. In case you are graduated recently, you probably have built up your profile and uploaded resume on various job portals like Indeed, Monster, and Naukri.com to receive job notifications. But as a fresher, it’s not so easy to get a suitable job because the number of job seekers are in excess and requirements are very less with most of the vacancies only for the experienced person.

Major portions of job notifications you receive contain hiring at some B.P.O. or call center mentioning the profile in which you generally don’t want to build your career. So colleges as well as job portals usually fail to provide placement as per candidate’s expectations.

With an increasing number of freshers and dissatisfied working people, a business of HR consultants is booming rapidly. Sometimes you come across a job notification mentioning the name of a placement agency inviting you for an interview. They can also make phone calls to pretend that they got your resume from reputed job portals. Then they may ask some basic questions related to your location & qualifications and then finally ask you to arrive for an interview at their office.

When you visit their office, first they conduct a short interview and then try to create a perception in your mind that you are lack of skills, technical knowledge, and your communication skills are also not up to the mark. Then they start to demand some money on account of providing a job through their reference or registering you under some training program.

In such a situation, how can you play safe? Here are few points to keep in mind while searching for a job and answering to job interviews:

Identifying  Job Scams & Fake Offers

Fake emails and posts related to a job or an interview are not so easy to identify. Sometimes they look completely genuine until you visit their office. First step you need to take is to read such type of posts carefully and completely. You will see that lot of information will be improper or missing such as the official website of company, proper job description mentioning the profile in which candidates are required and various responsibilities assigned to them by the company.

They also claim to have a bulk requirement of candidates while offering high salary with attractive perks, incentives, and other benefits and also want you to join immediately. But their joining prerequisites consist of paying some refundable amount after your selection or the completion of hiring process. They will explain that this amount is going to be spent on your training and will refund you after a period of 3-6 months.

Remember, genuine employer or recruitment agencies never ask job seekers for money as they get commission from the companies for which they are hiring. Some fake recruiters also want to submit your original documents related to your qualifications. Be cautious and think logically that why a genuine employer would ask you to pay an amount or submit your document for offering a job. Avoid joining such type of employers as they are only intended to deceive you into paying cash or want to use your services without providing any type of salary.

Research and Look for Reliable Sources Only

Given the continuous increment in unemployment, some fraud employers and job scammers are trying to take advantage of this situation. If you’re receiving job notifications from top companies without even applying for them or receiving an offer letter without having an interview, then consider it as a job scams without any doubt. Such fake posts are generally unprofessional with lots of incorrect spellings and grammatical errors. Also if you have got any invitation for a walk-in interview from an unknown source, it is always recommended to research more about the sender. You can search the name of company online and visit the company’s website to crosscheck their emails and contact addresses.

Remember that most of the employers prefer to post a job opening either on their official website or with reputed online job portals. Another important point is to look at the email address of sender carefully. If it is a personal id (gmail.com or yahoo.com) instead of a company domain, it could be a trap for you.

Take Advantage of Google & Digital Media

Apart from submitting your resume on various job portals, you can also directly apply on company’s website by going through their ‘Careers’ section. Suppose you are from Delhi and want to start your career as a software developer. Then just search on Google by typing “Software development companies in Delhi/NCR” and you will get the name/website of so many companies related to your expected domain.

You can also take advantage of social media platforms while searching for job and especially LinkedIn is very beneficial for building professional network and applying for an interview. Most of the companies are using this platform to post job notification and to hire the right candidate. So, it is necessary to create your profile on LinkedIn with proper personal and academic details. You can also check the profile of suspicious recruiter on LinkedIn and visit the company page of the employer to verify their presence. If the recruiter’s LinkedIn profile has few connections or doesn’t have complete information, it may be some sort of job scams.

If you start to feel that things aren’t right, trust your intuition. Scammers often prey on people who are insecure, unwary, and desperate. Even if you are looking for a job on an urgent basis, take some time to ask questions and pay close attention to the answers. Your awareness will help you to avoid loss of money and time by falling into the trap of such job scams.