Client or Employer?

The team and I were having an interesting discussion yesterday about a job that had been posted via a vacancies list at a well known organisation, and also about approaches by email. There is concern these days about which ones are genuine and which ones are illegal. My response follows:

“If it has anything to do with processing accounts, handling money on their behalf, being a finance officer or similar – STAY RIGHT AWAY FROM IT.

In fact, any offer of a ‘job’, so to speak, by email, should be viewed suspiciously.

Clients look for VAs… Employers advertise for employees – distinct difference. Employers generally do not approach employees individually – unless they go through a head hunting organisation.

I’d stay well away from it – I get a number of those myself and just block them in my spam filter.”

Why would an employer waste time (or money) collecting/purchasing email addresses to email people about a job when they can advertise through career sites or newspapers and have people apply to them? And yet, because so many are keen to get work at home, they just do not think this one through.

But all the same, even when you do find a role advertised through any of the employment / vacancy sites these days, you still need to be careful. At no time should you be asked to process payments on behalf of the employer, and then keep a percentage for yourself. Think about it. Who in their right mind would entrust a stranger (or new employee) with their hard-earned monies? KMT