Category: Job Search

Placement agents will often ask that you make “minor” alterations to your resume for presentation to a client, “Don’t say Oracle, say SQL,” and inevitably there’s a time constraint giving you the impression that you’re not going to be submitted for a particular position if you don’t make their suggested changes instantly.

Evaluate these requests carefully, especially if you’re applying to multiple positions through multiple resources.  On the one hand, the suggestions may yield a stronger resume. On the other hand, the suggestions may be the placement agent picking nits, due to their personal biases.

After four solid years of looking for permanent employment, I can’t honestly tell you if making changes under the gun will land you a job, it sure hasn’t in my case.

What I can tell you, is that making changes on the fly can introduce some of the darndest typos in your resume.

In various attempts to comply with placement services “requests” I’ve found myself editing my 900-word resume on my phone, sitting in a parking lot, in my car. “This is an immediate opening; I can’t submit your resume without these changes…“

“Planned” and “Planed” look an awful lot alike on a phone’s screen. Spellcheck isn’t going to catch the difference either. Punctuation? Ha!  Worse yet, you make the edits then rush headlong into another interview, forgetting you made them.

If you’re using a cloud service your edits are propagated to all your devices and any errors, introduced may linger in your resume for quite some time. Who re-reads every single word of their resume each time they send it out? You “know” you’ve worked hard on getting it just right and you don’t recall making any changes…

So you merrily select “Upload” on whatever job placement site you’re using and move on to the next flagged position.

Wanted: detail oriented person for high paying position…

Yep, they’re going to really believe how detail oriented you are because you planed the project, cutting costs by 20%. While shaving costs, may in fact be a good thing, you probably meant you planned the project.

I recently noticed that I’d at some point, (fairly recently, I hope,) made exactly that mistake. I did it literally on the first line describing my former duties. I even think I know when I did it.

I was having to reword several descriptions because the placement guy wanted a bit more “punch”. I was distracted, sitting in a coffee shop, doing the edits on my iPad between interviews, and probably accepted the first suggested word choice. I know better!

Nonetheless, I finished the edits, and emailed the update to the placement agent. The agent, in my humble opinion should not only have caught the error, but told me about it and corrected the word prior to sending my resume to his client.

Guess what? He didn’t notice the problem at all.

Which brings me back to the original point.

Minor edits being demanded by placement agencies may land you in more trouble than simply allowing your resume to stand on its own merit.

I’ve been considering placing my resume under source code control for a while. Maybe today is the day! I’ll put my resumes under Git, just like all my other code projects. It’s easy and allows me to compare changes and even roll changes back. 

Sounds like a winner. 

I don’t think that doing so should require that I sell my soul to the company store! That  comparison is a bit of a stretch but it’s the closest I can come to expressing what I feel.

I was applying to a retail position. When they asked me for the last four of my Social Security Number to CREATE an account, my security senses were heightened.

As I read the terms and conditions governing my use of the 3rd party site handling the application I came to a FULL DAMN STOP! 

I’m linking to a full PDF of the terms to which I was expected to agree.

I had a couple of problems with the terms.

This is a retail position. I don’t see why I should be required to forfeit my right to privacy to apply for the position.

I strongly disagree with the premise that it’s alright for my information to be extorted from me, while trying to get back to having gainful employment.

I believe It’s wrong that the company, PeopleAnswers not only is making money from the employer but they are collecting data, reprocessing that data and then using it without my express permission or my ability to delete or control that information, so that they make additional money. 

They go so far as to absolve themselves of any and all responsibility for the information that they create. They continue by telling you that you’re not allowed to take any legal action against them.

EXCUSE ME?

They create a situation where you aren’t able to apply for, or potentially keep, a job except by agreeing to vacate your right to privacy. You have no right to know what they’re doing with your information, who or where that information is going and no legal recourse for any damage done to you by the release of that collected information. 

This is WHY I’m opposed to online job application services / tests / and all that goes with them.

I’d suggest a boycott of these sites, the problem is that those of us who value our privacy are in the minority.

So where does that leave job seekers?

Screwed that’s where. Between a rock and a hard place. Give up your privacy, or be homeless.

I’d write a letter to my representatives at the state, and federal level, but I think that I’d be better served taking that sheet of paper, crumbling it up and wiping my ass.

I’m going to try walking into the business and see if I can fill out an application.