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I'm looking for a job right now, and I got all the standard questions, but they are asking for things I am not sure I should give out.

  • LinkedIn ID
  • Skype ID
  • Last 4 digits of my social security number
  • Zip code
  • Highest education with year

Do any of these cross a line?

I'm in the USA

Bernhard Barker
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Tina_Sea
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    What' the context? Is a recruiter asking for these things? If so, is it someone random who has contacted you out of the blue? Or is it a recruiter you've got an established relationship with? And if so, are you in the middle of negotiating for a specific job opportunity? – dwizum Mar 09 '20 at 16:12
  • I've been asked for last 4 of SSN many times. It's possible it can be used to phish for personal information, so you should only give it to people you're sure are real and working in your country. The legitimate uses are to reduce the chances of false positives for double-application-detection. – bxk21 Mar 09 '20 at 16:52
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    @bxk21 the legitimacy of using SSN for duplicate detection is dubious, IMHO. There are other ways of doing it. Those other methods might require that a human being look at information and apply critical thinking for 15-20 seconds, but I understand that some shops might be hesitant to use human beings to perform human resources related tasks. – alroc Mar 09 '20 at 17:02
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    Too short fpr an answer: provide the highest education but don't include the year. Including the year may give sufficient information to discriminate against you based upon age, or otherwise make assumptions about your age/experience that are not true. – alroc Mar 09 '20 at 17:03
  • I wouldn't have given them the last four digits of your SSN number. They aren't a creditor or a government organization. Why would they need this? –  Mar 09 '20 at 17:36
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    What happens if you don't have a Skype ID? – alroc Mar 09 '20 at 17:52
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    There is absolutely no legitimate reason a recruiter will have need the last 4-digits of your SSN. You should never provide that information to a recruiter. The only reason a company even requires your SSN is in order to provide you tax documents. It's not even required if you are a contractor. You can't perform a background check on the last 4 digits of a SSN. – Donald Mar 09 '20 at 20:38
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    Zip and SSN (or last 4 digits) seems fishy and realistically should not be asked until they run a background check on you (at that point you would need to provide full SSN) which is usually a last step in hiring process (after interview). I would assume whoever contacted you is harvesting the data at the best or trying to do some illegal stuff at the worst. – AlexanderM Mar 09 '20 at 23:37
  • @AlexanderM Not necessarily. A few companies provide paid transport for their employees. Knowing their ZIP codes, specially in a rather large city, helps knowing how much they'll spend in transportation. That's uncommon in the US but extremely common in places like Brazil, for example. More so, when dealing with time-sensitive jobs like security staff or similar, usually an employee that lives close by is preferable to one that lives far away. Being close by means lower chances of being late. – T. Sar Mar 10 '20 at 11:27
  • Those requests are part of a template used by spammers. Ignore and block any recruiters asking for that information. – StackOverthrow Mar 10 '20 at 16:08
  • @alroc If you don't have a Skype ID, you write "I don't have one" in the spot where they ask for it, or just create one. – Bernhard Barker Mar 10 '20 at 18:14
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    Related: Should I give recruiter my DOB and last four digits of SSN? – Bernhard Barker Mar 10 '20 at 18:23

2 Answers2

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Send your resume. Your address, phone number, name, work history and education history are all there. If they are asking for any additional personal information, share that you are happy to provide those details to potential employers for the purpose of a background check, etc.. If the recruiter wants to complete a credit check or background check as well, share that you are willing to provide personal details directly to the agency completing the check.

You should be forthcoming with information related to your work and education, but be guarded about personal information.

Best of luck with the job search!

Jay
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I would not share the last 4 of your social with the recruiter, but the other information in your question seems reasonable to share. If it's needed for background/credit check I agree with jay. You can inform the recruiter that you do not feel comfortable sharing that information and let him know that you are willing to share directly to the hiring company or the agency completing the check. Never the individual.

Summary: Most of this information should be on your resume, but this is my opinion.

  • Last 4 of social: do not share.
  • LinkedIn ID: I would definitely share.
  • Skype ID: personal preference, I would in case that's how they would like to contact you.
  • Zip Code: It helps narrow down the job search if you've got a limit on commute time.
  • Highest Education: I would share, It's on your resume right?

Best of luck!

Justice
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    education, yes, but not year graduate – Tina_Sea Mar 09 '20 at 17:21
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    @Tina_Sea Why not? It's on your diploma as well, correct? – Mast Mar 10 '20 at 09:41
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    @Mast I think it is to avoid the potential for age discrimination as graduation year is an indicator of your age – Joseph Devlin Mar 10 '20 at 10:18
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    @JosephDevlin A potential indicator - I know someone whose first experience of University was studying for a Masters, after he'd retired. Your point about age discrimination is a good one - but Name and Year might (and probably are) both be required for them to verify with the educational establishment that your actually did obtain the diploma you claim. – Chronocidal Mar 10 '20 at 11:59
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    @Chronocidal My take away from this is that I should wait until im about 12-15 years into my career then do a masters to become young again :D – Joseph Devlin Mar 10 '20 at 12:15
  • I put this info on my resume so I'm not sure why that would be a problem. – Justice Mar 10 '20 at 12:32
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    “I personally would not share the last 4 of your social with the recruiter” — could you state why? Opinions aren't worth much, but information is. – Paul D. Waite Mar 10 '20 at 13:04
  • Well, it's a personal preference honestly. The question was opinion based and for something like this it's hard to answer without an opinion based answer. Those numbers should be private and not shared with someone who may have ill intentions on using them for their own personal gain. – Justice Mar 10 '20 at 13:37
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    While graduation year can be an age indicator it is also used many times, with resume, to see if the candidate has been in the industry since graduating and to judge what we(those looking at your resume) might expect you to know with X number of years under your belt. – NDEthos Mar 10 '20 at 15:35