SEEK’s latest drive is to get job seekers to create their very own SEEK profile, rather than just applying for jobs via job postings. The advertising goes something like this – put your talent out there – let opportunity come to you. I’m sure you also recall their fairly recent TV advertising campaign.
With SEEK feeling the impact of LinkedIn it has tried to launch its own product. I personally like SEEK’s company profiles, where job seekers have a really useful resource when they are applying for a job at a company with company reviews. But I don’t like the SEEK profile. Why?
Well from my perspective, I think job seekers are again being treated as a data commodity, as the SEEK profile concept has been developed from a position of helping the employer / recruiters (how they make the money), rather than genuinely helping the job seeker. There are two major issues I have with SEEK profiles (and no making money from your information is not one of them):
Salary Information
If you look at the SEEK profile they are asking for salary requirements. Now it is not compulsory, but most job seekers will fill out this information, because it is part of the profile. Coming from a job seekers perspective, as soon as you disclose salary requirements, it does put you at a distinct disadvantage. By having access to your salary requirements, employers will have the upper hand during salary negotiations.
As far as I’m concerned, asking for this information is none of their business. It’s private information. It’s personal information. It’s confidential information. Keeping your requirements confidential is pretty important, as disclosure directly affects your ability to negotiate at later stages in the process, when salary negotiations take place. Although employers, recruiters and SEEK itself might argue that your salary is a good indicator of your perceived value, and whether they can afford you – I don’t agree. It is up to the company to make an independent assessment of your value to the business, after they have talked to you (not before).
Your boss can find out you looking for a new job
A lot of job seekers don’t want their current employer or boss to know they are looking for work. While it is not immediately apparent, did you know if you have your SEEK profile set to the standard setting, (which is the default setting) then your boss can view your profile and know you are actively seeking a new job? In SEEK’s own words:
Can I hide my profile from my current employer?
There is no way to hide your profile from a particular person or advertiser, however you can choose the level of information you would like to share by selecting the privacy setting that best meets your needs.
After a careful review of the privacy settings, the only way you can hide from your current boss or employer is to change your settings to Hidden, which means NOBODY can view your profile. Hiding your profile from everyone pretty much defeats the whole purpose of creating a SEEK profile in the first place.
With LinkedIn on the other hand, you can simply turn off notifications to your connections, update your profile and because it is such a common networking tool, it is a much safer bet if you don’t want your boss to know you are proactively looking for work.
So what are people’s experience of the SEEK profile? I would love to hear your personal view and experience and whether you have had any success or not.
Thank you for this useful information. I’ve removed the salary suggestion from my SEEK profile, and next I’ll try to resurrect my LinkedIn profile. I think these two will be all I need, at least for now.
And I’ll bookmark your site, of course. 🙂
Thank you and hopefully this puts you in a better position for any salary negotiations.
I too would like to hide my profile from certain employers and Seek used to have this option! I am not too sure when they have removed this but it’s demeaning on those that are currently seeking work.
How can we bring this to Seek attention to bring this back?
I will now remove the Salary indicator as you’re right it’s no one business except those negotiating parties.
I’m sure Seek is aware of this, but there priority is growing their business, rather than protecting job seekers privacy. This is just my opinion of course and thanks SO much for your feedback.
If I have applied for a job through seek providing resume and cover letter then must I have a visible profile?
Your profile is public to employers and recruiters, which is a problem if your current employer is looking!
I find it annoying that with many jobs, seek seems to only send the resume on your profile. If for some reason its not updated they may send an out of date resume . I personally prefer to send my resume and cover letter from my own computer rather than have an algorithm do it for me. sometimes I might change the wording for a particular employer or something. Although my resume on seek is Hidden it still asks me to “update” my profile before sending the application through. Its just all too confusing, I prefer “indeed” to seek. .
I wish there is option to not include part of my profile as I see fit, even to the employers I’m sending my application to. I’m in a sort of tricky situation wanting career switch. Not in terms of the qualifications and skills I have, but the jobs I had over the last years not really related (certainly not reflected in the job title) to the field/profession I hope to get back into. Through such as above & beyond, achievements aspects of my main employment, I have built up and maintained skills and experiences related to the field and profession I’m interested in. While I’m able to design the layout of my resume to help highlight relevant skills/experiences as per advice I had seen. The way SEEK profile have me to fill my Career History negates what I’m trying to do. I fear the SEEK Profile likely the first thing employers would see, and my resume won’t even have chances being read due to the roles I have to show in Career History without choice.
I couldn’t find what I needed here. My last job was not what I normally do yet it cements itself to your profile. I am normally a research analyst but my last title was for a three month contract role and isn’t really relevant going forward. Do I just have to delete my latest role for this to happen? Maybe LinkedIn is a better option
LinkedIn would be the way better option Brett.
I’ve had all sorts of problems with the Seek Profile. It actually changes some of my CV details. I’m looking for medical admin work but after adding roles from my resume, I found that I’ve been promoted to an occupational therapist and a rehabilitation physician!!! It also took 20 years off my start and finish date for another role! Lucky I was diligent and checked it before saving it. I’ve never understood why I need a resume AND a profile, but I think you’ve explained it very well Carolyn. After going to so much trouble to ensure that my resume is correct, I shouldn’t then have to sift through my profile to make sure it’s also correct.
I’m just not a fan of the Seek profile Christine. Good luck with your job search.