I was talking with a friend the other day and he was giving me an update on how his job search is coming along.  One of the things we joked about was the plethora of anonymous or “confidential” job postings on job boards.

While there may be a few legitimate reasons for an organization to post anonymously,  it’s generally a red flag that something is wrong.  Maybe the organization has high turnover and they don’t want potential employees to see their constant job postings in every corner of the web or maybe it’s a crummy job and they don’t want to scare off potential hires until they can give them a job pitch.

I’ve looked into some of these postings under the guise of a job seeker and in my experience they were all awful and some weren’t even jobs.  One of the postings I applied to wasn’t even for the advertised job but for a book (for sale of course)  on how to get the type of job advertised in the posting!  Some of the jobs were work at home jobs that are better classified as business opportunities…and calling them that is a stretch.  Most though were just flat out undesirable jobs at companies with less than stellar reputations.

If an employer won’t give job specifics or even mention their own name, they aren’t worth your time.  Move on.