Company Confidential

Meaning of Company Confidential

What does it mean when a job is posted as “Company Confidential?”

From a professional recruiter’s standpoint, I can explain it. Recruiting is a very competitive industry. It’s rare that an outside recruiter has an exclusive arrangement with a hiring company and can post the hiring company’s name. We are protecting our client and we are protecting ourselves.

There are candidates who say they would never “go around and apply directly to my client company. Some of which were actually doing that while they were on the phone with me. So I learned long ago, that as much as I would love to trust everyone; that’s not a smart thing to do.

There are also recruiting companies who don’t have enough work and find it easier to call other recruiters.  They just want to find out who you are recruiting for and then call that company to sell their own recruiting service. They, of course, don’t tell the recruiter they are competition. They disguise themselves as viable candidates.

Where I find it confusing is when a company who is running their own job postings doesn’t include their name. There are very few explanations for this that make any sense. The ones that come to mind are:

The company is recruiting for a position that currently has someone in it. They can’t risk losing the person they are trying to replace until they have someone new to fill it.

Perhaps the company doesn’t want their competitors to know they are hiring. Although to me that sounds like a positive thing; perhaps they think it makes them look weak.

My favorite is they don’t want to use their real email address because then they will get SPAM emails and they’ll get follow up emails from the applicants. Heaven forbid an applicant knows who you are!

On the down side of not including the hiring company information…well…where to start? If someone is currently employed, they are certainly not going to risk submitting their resume to an unknown company. I know people who have done this. It’s an awkward situation, trying to explain to your boss why you are looking for a new job. I’ve seen it happen.

Employed or unemployed, sending resumes in to automated applicant tracking systems, computers and even to people blindly is extremely frustrating. Why make it more frustrating for the job seekers? They can’t even track where they’ve sent their resume because so many postings don’t include the company name.

There’s a definite downturn in applicants. I recruit full time and I talk with hundreds if not thousands of people who are either actively or passively looking for a new opportunity. It’s my opinion that giving the job seekers more information is a win/win situation for everyone.

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