I’m not sure if the market is recovering or not. But you may have noticed the trend in my recent recruitment related posts. Yes! I’m currently on hiring mode! And getting a little annoyed reviewing resumes. Why?
Far too many candidates are sending resumes which looks like a replica of their team member’s resume! Guess what? Both of them are applying for the same role! Really. There just cannot be a worse deal breaker than plagiarizing your friend’s resume. You are doing a big disservice first to yourself and then to your friend. The job market isn’t great right now and this strategy is only ensuring both do not get interview calls. So why are candidates doing this knowing (hopefully) it’s wrong?
Here’s why I think candidates do it:
- Their friend (who is part of the same team) had used the services of a resume writing agency. He had paid for getting his resume written. Excellent! He did the right thing, since he couldn’t put together a great resume. So now the candidate start thinking, “We work for the same company, team, project, have the same skill-sets, etc. So it wouldn’t matter if I just copied his resume.” Not sure how they got your friend to agree to this idea. Really.
- A particular company and job which they were targeting had just hired a friend/team member. So again the candidate thought the company wouldn’t notice if his resume contents look very familiar and even applied for the same job. That’s a disastrous idea. Companies (irrespective of size) maintain their own versions of candidate databases. Remember? The same recruiter could be reviewing your resume and he isn’t impressed.
- Laziness got the better of the candidate! It’s a really lame (I would even say, dumb) excuse for copying a friend’s resume. The resume got a blacklisted or the recruiter raised a big red flag.
- The candidate couldn’t think of words that best explain his job on paper. Really! If the candidate can’t explain his work, then would his friend be able to do that for him? It’s a tough ask.
But there's hope. It's not completely lost as yet. If you are a candidate currently looking for a new job, then you may want to know more about resume writing and how to to make your resume count. Check the links below.
Resume Writing: Standard Template
Make your resume count!
At a time when the job market isn’t really doing great, plagiarizing is only going to make your job search a lot tougher and will definitely hamper your chances of landing a job. It’s time to give the resume a lot more importance. Yes, keep it real.
PS: Any recruiters reading this blog? Please do share your thoughts on ways to improve resume writing that would help candidates with their job search. Look forward to hear your thoughts.
