January 26, 2012
Whether to strengthen their resumes or to earn money, Hamiltonians, like most college students, make the same push every year for those coveted summer internships and jobs. Yet some of these opportunities are intentionally made to lure competing applicants into their web of deceit and fraud. The Career Center has confirmed that not only is this the reality of web-based job and internship searches but that such an incident took place through Hamilton’s private job and internship database, HamNET.
In the effort to raise awareness on campus of such fraudulent postings, and to give advice on how to avoid them in the future, Abby Taylor, interim director of employer relations at the Career Center, explained that the incident with HamNET was not the norm. Taylor, the interim assistant director, employer relations at the Career Center, explained the incident with HamNET was not the norm—it was an isolated incident involving one particular student.
The fraudulent post was a “general accounting internship,” according to Taylor, going on further to explain that once the Career Center received a complaint from the student, she (Taylor) immediately informed Symplicity, the company that runs HamNET. Interestingly, Symplicity told Taylor this particular firm had been reported in similar cases from other schools.
Taylor’s job at the Career Center involves working primarily with employers, screening job and internship posts employers put on HamNET and posting job/internship opportunities herself. Taylor emphasized that HamNET is still a “very safe and effective tool for Hamilton students to help look for jobs and internships, especially those just applying for the first time.” She went on to add that with all the posts HamNET has, one incident is a negligible statistic. “The story speaks for itself,” said Taylor, “and I don’t want people to be dissuaded from using HamNET,” because of one isolated incident. Amie Rodriguez ’14 helped allay some of Taylor’s concern, saying, “There are so many jobs and internships posted that one incident will not deter me from looking for them.” When asked the name of the student involved, Taylor would not disclose the student’s name, saying she feels the student “would not be comfortable” having his or her name released without consent. Marcela Peguero ’14 agreed, saying, “I don’t think the person would want to have campus know who he or she is, in light of the situation.”
As to how one prevents his or herself from applying to fake job and internships, Taylor reiterated the need for comprehensive research done on part of the applicant.
“People who intend to do something fraudulent make it hard for others to find out it is just that,” said Taylor. “We at the Career Center want to make sure students don’t send résumés off to just anybody.”
She suggested before applying to a particular job/internship to look up the company’s website, to find information about it through search engines like Google or Yahoo and to look to see if they even have a Facebook page.
When asked if students should stay away from opportunities that seem too good to be true, Taylor said, “No they shouldn’t avoid them, because sometimes there are really good jobs and internships out there.”
Most importantly, Taylor stresses these skills can and should be used for job and internship searching for all websites, not just HamNET. She added that HamNET has an added security advantage compared to general job and internship sites because the majority of employers on HamNET are alumni and have a “unique relationship” with Hamilton students.
Felipe Garcia ’14 said despite the HamNET incident, “I will continue to go to the Career Center because it is still a helpful and reputable place on campus.”