When it’s time to do your taxes, do you ask your neighbors or co-workers if you can see their return so you can have an idea of what to do? I’m sure you don’t. It’s not only confidential information, but your co-worker/neighbor has a completely different background than you do, i.e.: kids, deductions, income level, etc. So why do so many people see a resume they like and “borrow” it for their own use? It’s really no different.
Today, I came across one such document posted on a website. The resume listed me as the author. I know I didn’t write it, because it was full of mistakes that people who typically write their own resume commit. It also listed the resume originally belonging to one of my clients in the document properties along with a company that I used to subcontract for until last December.
Here’s what I suspect happened. My client sent the resume during her job search, and the guy who received it, liked it enough to copy; or he was friends with my client and she shared. The weird thing is that it looked absolutely nothing like the original I wrote for her. It was very badly written, and nothing in the formatting matched my work. I was less concerned that my document was stolen, and far more concerned that there’s a poorly written resume floating around on the Internet with my name identified as its’ creator. Not a good advertisement of my work.
Most people are unaware of the document properties, but did you also know that you can do a tracking history and find out everything that’s ever been done to that document since it was created? That’s a good reason right there why resumes should start from scratch!
Be aware that your resume can contain more information than you care to share.
–Susan Geary, CERW / 1st Rate Resumes