Dev.SN

Employment Applications and Your Personal Info

posted by janrinok on Sunday March 02 2014, @06:00PM   
from the you-know-that-you-can-trust-us dept.

SuperCharlie writes:

"I am in search of employment and ran across a bit of a dilemma that I would like some Soylent guidance. After applying for a job at CareerBuilder, I received a follow-up email which requested that I fill out their on-line application. The first field, mandatory, was Social Security Number as part of their initial screening process. My question for the community is, how would you deal with requests like this as the initial employment steps?"

• How badly do you need the job? How badly do you need the job? (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 02 2014, @06:13PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 02 2014, @06:13PM (#9770)

  I've gone both ways on this, depending on my level of desperation and/or the desirability of the job.

  I don't like it, but unless you play by their rules you can't even get in the game. Remember, if you don't fill it in, your application will probably never be seen by a human being.

  If you know the company doing the hiring, you could try to find another way to get their attention.

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• Re:How badly do you need the job? Re:How badly do you need the job? (Score: 3, Informative) by VLM on Sunday March 02 2014, @06:23PM

  by VLM (445) on Sunday March 02 2014, @06:23PM (#9779)

  "if you don't fill it in, your application will probably never be seen by a human being."

  It is illegal to intentionally falsify information on a W-2 form. This is not a W-2 form. You do the math. Most of the jobs on that site in my area are ultra low end, just a small step up from day labor, maybe a step down from temp agency jobs, so I don't think they're going to do much background checking. This is not legal advice.

  Parent

  • Re:How badly do you need the job? (Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 02 2014, @06:54PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 02 2014, @06:54PM (#9800)

    It's not illegal, but it almost certainly violates the terms of the application (that all information is true). You could put in bogus numbers to get past the automated rejection process, but you would then set yourself up for being rejected for lying on your application.

    Parent

• Re:How badly do you need the job? (Score: 2, Interesting) by mrclisdue on Sunday March 02 2014, @08:01PM

  by mrclisdue (680) on Sunday March 02 2014, @08:01PM (#9829)

  I realize it's a US-centric query, but in Canada, basically, one only has to supply one's Social Insurance Number (SIN) to employers, specific government institutions, and specific financial institutions (there are some other things, see the list here:

  http://www.priv.gc.ca/resource/fs-fi/02_05_d_02_e. asp [priv.gc.ca]

  )

  I've seen hundreds of resumes where the SIN was prominent, often in the header, along with dob info ....

  It's considered bad form in these parts to divulge one's SIN as it's gold to the id-theft crowd.

  cheers,

  Parent