Learn the 7 important rules to protect yourself when looking for a job. Safeguard your personal information, research companies, and avoid job scams for a safe job search experience.
Safety is an important criterion when applying for a job. Together with Avito Jobs , we tell you what to pay attention to in a vacancy and at an interview to find a conscientious employer.
1. Check what the company does
The vacancy should indicate the name, type of activity and contact information of the organization. If the employer hides behind the phrases “large international enterprise”, “leader in its industry” or “dynamically developing company”, but does not explain what exactly it does, you can look for more information about it. To begin with, study the “black lists” of employers – these are websites or groups on social networks where employees share their impressions of companies. It happens that negative reviews are written by competitors or unscrupulous employees, so you should not trust them unconditionally, but it is still worth taking into account.
You can also check the company’s data for free on the website of the Federal Tax Service of Russia . To do this, you need to know the OGRN/INN or the name of the legal entity – such information is usually on the corporate website of the organization. Look at the company’s registration date. Sometimes vacancies say that the company has been on the market for many years, but upon checking it may turn out that the company was registered only a year or two ago.
If the company sells goods or services, you can study customer reviews and even try to place an order. If the quality of the goods does not match the declared or the managers are rude on the phone, this is a reason to think carefully about whether you want to work for such a company.
2. Search for vacancies on large and well-known resources
If you see a job posting at a bus stop or at the entrance door, it will not be easy to check the employer. It is more reliable to look for work on sites with a good reputation. In a situation where something goes wrong, you can complain about the unscrupulous employer, and he will be blocked.
Each company on such a site has a personal page – its content is determined by the employer himself. A company that takes recruitment seriously will most likely tell about itself in detail – after all, it is interested in attracting future employees.
You can find vacancies all over Russia using Avito Jobs — there are offers for secretaries, administrators, salespeople, cashiers, and representatives of many other specialties. Avito Jobs studies information about companies that publish vacancies. If a company has been operating for more than six months, pays taxes, and is not bankrupt, the “Company verified” mark appears in the ad card.
3. Choose offers with specific responsibilities
The vacancy should clearly describe what the employee will be doing. Wordings like “communicating with clients” and “carrying out instructions from the manager” may hide responsibilities that have little to do with the employee’s specialty. If you are already at the interview stage, ask to tell you in detail what tasks you will be assigned.
A reliable employer will not hide and will indicate in the ad what the employee should do: for example, receive and process customer calls or prepare commercial proposals and conduct presentations for clients. It is desirable that the list is not too long. It happens that unscrupulous employers try to assign one specialist so many tasks that it would be enough for five, but this does not affect the salary in any way. Weigh everything and try to imagine whether you can cope with such a volume of work.
4. It is worth leaving personal information for a closer acquaintance
Job postings may ask candidates to follow a link and fill out a job application. It requires that they provide as much personal information as possible: name, email, phone number, address, family composition. Such applications may be created to attract more traffic to a phishing site or to collect data and resell it, and the applicant will then be attacked by spammers.
Try not to click on suspicious links, and in your response, provide only general information about yourself – approximately the same as in your resume. If everything is in order with the vacancy, more detailed information can be provided at the interview.
5. But it’s better to find out all the details of the design right away.
The employer must conclude an employment contract or a civil law contract with the new employee – for example, on the provision of services or the performance of work. If you are offered to work unofficially for some time to see how you cope with your responsibilities, it is better to refuse. In a conflict situation, it will be difficult for an employee without a contract to prove that he really worked for the company and should receive money for it.
The employer may establish a probationary period that does not exceed three months, and for heads of organizations and chief accountants – six months. But even in this case, an agreement must be concluded that specifies that the employee is hired with a probationary period.
Another option for free labor is a large test task, after which the employer disappears into the fog. Here it is worth acting according to the situation: if the company has an impeccable reputation, it offers an interesting project and a good salary, you can agree to this option, because the risks are minimal. If you do not know anything about the company, think about whether you are ready to spend a day or two on work with an uncertain result.
6. …as well as the amount of remuneration, format and currency of payment
For example, an employer may offer a salary in cryptocurrency. There are companies on the market that use such payment methods, but there are few of them. Before agreeing, collect as much information about the employer as possible: look for reviews or talk to the company’s employees – they are easy to find, for example, on LinkedIn. If you do not understand how cryptocurrencies work, you should consider other vacancies.
Freelancers should agree to work on an advance payment basis. If the customer offers to pay after the completed order has been approved, there is a risk that it may drag on for several months – and all this time you will have to work for free. You can also understand the customer: you never know, maybe the freelancer will take the advance payment and disappear, but you still need to try to establish a trusting relationship with him. You can call and show examples of work or agree that the project will need to be delivered in stages.
7. Ads that ask you to pay for something can be closed immediately
Sometimes companies offer paid training, tools or work uniforms. It is better to decline such offers: after all, you are getting a job to earn money, not to spend it. If the employer is interested in training the employee, he should pay for it.
Sometimes job postings ask you to call or send a message to a short number, supposedly to sign up for an interview. The service is paid, and money is debited from the subscriber’s account. To protect yourself, it is better not to write or call unusual numbers.