Safe Practices in Your Search

When searching for positions on job boards outside of Handshake, we highly discourage posting your résumé for employers to find you. If you do choose to post your résumé to public websites, remove your home address and any contact information you do not want publicly available.

The Loeb Center does not provide employers access to students’ emails. All legitimate contacts from employers to your Amherst College email account will originate from the college’s Handshake system. Handshake provides you with the ability to make your profile public to employers or to keep it private, and only employers approved by the Loeb Center are able to access the system.

Indicators an employer email may be fraudulent include:

  • There are typos or spelling mistakes in the email
  • The message is sent from a personal rather than employer email account (example: @gmail.com rather than @thecompany’s name)
  • The “employer” asks you to send them confidential information or money
  • Read more warning signs in this article

If you ever have a question about a job opportunity that you have received from an employer, please do not respond to the email and instead contact the Loeb Center to verify its authenticity.

Resources:

These are a variety of websites that have good information on fake job scams for inspiration and as resources for the students. 

https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/job-scams

https://www.topresume.com/career-advice/job-scam-warning-signs

https://www.recruiter.com/recruiting/job-scam-or-legit-opportunity-5-red-flags-to-look-out-for/

https://www.job-hunt.org/9-scam-characteristics/

https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/how-to-know-if-a-job-is-a-scam

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/18/22-year-old-goes-viral-for-sharing-job-scam-nightmare-and-red-flags.html  (this is a sad but too often experience that has lots of good pointers and resources)

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