You've been in contact with a recruiter about a job opportunity, and he tells you the good news - you've got the interview!
So far, so good. You show up to interview, and you're sitting down with the hiring manager. The manager asks you to clarify something on your resume. You ask to see what she's talking about.
The manager shows you your resume, and it's unrecognizable. A quick glimpse at the resume she gives you shows that the formatting's been changed, your contact information has been removed, and it appears that there's been modifications to the body of the text. God forbid that any errors have been added in.
What. The. #*$!. Happened!?!?!?
Okay, brace yourself for this. Ready?
Recruiters may edit your resume to better suit their own needs. And it happens more often than you think.
A recruiter (even an internal, corporate recruiter) is in a sales role. He is held to metrics that such as placements, cycle time, etc.
At the minimum, the recruiter will remove your contact information to prevent an employer from going around them and reaching out to you directly, thus cutting them out of the deal.
But sometimes it goes further than that. Editing content, changing things around to appeal to a hiring manager, you name it - the recruiter may feel that he ishelping the candidate, but it's not always the case. A spell-check is one thing, modifying content is another.
You've put a lot of work into deciding how you would like to present yourself in your resume, what can you do?
If you have the opportunity send your resume as a PDF, do it. It's a lot harder for anybody to modify.
Bring your own hard copies of your resume to the interview. As the interview begins, provide a copy to the interviewer as your "latest version."
Understand that changes may happen - the resume is often out of control once it leaves your hands.
Make sure your resume is rock-solid before sending it to anybody. Make sure it's well-written, without errors or typos. Don't give anybody any reason to feel the need to edit your resume on your behalf.
Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. He is a Human Resources professional and staffing expert with almost two decades of in-house corporate HR and staffing firm experience, and is a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) and Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC).
Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.
