Staff-leasing company "steals" my resumé; should I let them get away with it?

https://plus.google.com/u/0/109068543568522312611/posts/CkrvXNttPBY

by nsantos • 14 years ago

13 17 14 years ago

plus.google.com

nsantos6• 14 years ago

I'm sure others have been in similar (if not exactly the same) situations; what have you done, and how did things turn out?

It's highly likely that my "problem" has one clear course of action; but for someone who's been out-of-it for a while due to the pressures that come with having been out of work for over four months now, I'm not entirely sure how to go about it.

dexen• 14 years ago

Consider whether their abuse of your resume actively harms you some way, be it lowering your repuation or re-directing potential clients to them.

If it does harm you, send them a cease&desist letter, based on your authorship of this text. Ask to remove the text from the website, and suggest further discussion.

Aside of that, consider negotiating some licencing fees for past and (if applicable) future use of the document. They may try to disclaim responsibility, blaming honest mistake of a random employee, but that not necessarily absolves any responsibility.

In any case, ask them to attach credit where it is due -- perhaps link to your personal website?

nsantos6• 14 years ago

Unless I get access to their clients list/information, and can positively identify clients that joined them largely (or even solely) because of the (relative) strength of my resumé, it'd be kind of hard to prove that their misuse of my brag sheet actively harms me, no?

Mostly, I'm interested in stories of others who've been in similar situations. Also, your suggestion implies enlisting the help of a lawyer; if so, I'd really rather have other options, since I don't have the... er, required financial capacity to do that at the moment. (Plus, is it even worth it to involve lawyers in something like this?)

bdunbar2• 14 years ago

what have you done, and how did things turn out?

Agency got my resume, sent it to a company un-authorized. At at about the same time a peer was sending that manager my resume.

I lost out on what may have been a pretty good position, forever barred from that company.

I didn't do anything, couldn't. They wouldn't tell me who the agency was, other than it wasn't the one I had been dealing with.

That was a decade ago. I don't know what I'd do now: maybe write a polite blog post about it, so if someone googled my name they'd have my side of the story.

ghurlman• 14 years ago

I learned to add a Creative Commons notation & URL to the full license to every copy of my resume I've handed out for years now. It won't prevent spammers, but it does give easy grounds to get stuff like this pulled down.

nsantos6• 14 years ago

They're not exactly spammers, per se. This company was spun off of one I was part of for a little over a month; that's how they got my resumé. However, I've never been a part of this newer company, and I'm pretty sure the contract I signed with the older one is null and void to begin with.

Also, I'm from the Philippines, where the legal system isn't exactly amenable to small claims such as this. And, in any case, I don't really have the financial means to pursue this in court (not that I want to).

nsantos6• 14 years ago

For context, here's an earlier G+ post with a bit more background: https://plus.google.com/u/0/109068543568522312611/posts/VcrF...

xanadohnt• 14 years ago

Get over yourself? In the grand scheme of life annoyances, this seems to me to be of little consequence.

jlarocco• 14 years ago

Talk about making a mountain out of a mole hill.

Ask them to stop and then get over it. They probably didn't even expect anybody would care because it's just not that big of a deal.

bdunbar2• 14 years ago

This kind of thing can bounce back.

Years ago, a friend called, said they had an opening and would I like to send him my resume. I did. He sent it to his manager.

A week later his manager told him that their contracting agency had already sent him my resume. And that for contractual reasons with that agency he could not consider me.

Now, I'd never even heard of this contracting agency, let alone sent them my resume. But I had dealt with other agencies, and copies of my res were on web sites.

I've always assumed they captured it from the web, or a scuzzy rep fled to a new agency with a long list of resumes on CD.

hluska• 14 years ago

There's another side to this story...

There's a staff leasing company promoting its services by showing off the resume of someone who does not work for it. Do the actual contractors have similar skill sets? If so, why aren't they using their resumes?

There's something pretty unethical about marketing one level of talent and delivering a lower level.

droithomme• 14 years ago

This is seriously not OK. It's also fraud. The persons in your comments and in this thread saying it's all cool and you are the bad guy for having a problem with it, where the heck did they come from?

nsantos6• 14 years ago

I actually understand where they're coming from. As xanadohnt said, in the grand scheme of life annoyances, this might seem to be of little consequence. i.e., big picture, this is nothing. But most of us here are programmers; we tend to be proud of our ability to zero in on the small things. :)

Foy2• 14 years ago

On a side note, I wonder how long he'll remain unemployed with his resume on HN's front page? :)

Maybe this cloud has a silver lining? Pardon the cliche. ;)

nsantos6• 14 years ago

Haha! Well, one can hope, I suppose. Except, this time of the year, the Philippines' hiring scene gets to be pretty sucky. Fogeys like me get to "compete" with boatload after boatload of fresh grads with nothing but two months of Visual Basic experience, an ignorance the impossible, and a hankering for a paycheck (regardless of the number of zeroes). Companies figure they can train these chumps and overwork them, then reap the profits.

The fogeys come in afterwards, to clean up the mess (if we're lucky).

But, while it'd be nice to get offers because of this, I'm more interested in the lessons. Plus, I suppose there's a feeling of betrayal, because, as I mentioned earlier, I know one of the people running the company. (To get this out of the way, there are reasons, which I can't discuss, as to why I can't simply walk up to them and tell them to either pay up or take my resumé down.)

Foy2• 14 years ago

To all the people commenting about how "this isn't a big deal" you need to keep in mind the big picture.

A future hiring manager might find this copied/stolen resume, and presume that the OP had copied the staff leasing company's "master programmer"'s resume. Instead of the other way 'round!

helen842000• 14 years ago

What contact has been made with the company?

Evidently they never expected for the use of your resume to come to light.

They obviously want to use it! Why not drop them a mail and say you've seen that they're using it. Advise them of their 'choices', if they want to continue using it they need to add a disclaimer to confirm they have not hired you, also include details of your (very large) fee for continued use.

Alternatively they can remove it and just pay a reduced fee for the time they have used it so far. After all, they have no affiliation with you - they are just using it as 'artwork' for which you should be paid.

I'd make sure the first contact with them is civil. they'll probably be sneaky & just take it down but you never know, taking the official route & spelling it out for them might produce benefits!

If they don't comply, you can always take it further. You can even say you approached them reasonably!

Staff-leasing company "steals" my resumé; should I let them get away with it?

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