Community SaysFree
Recruiter says: tailor your resume, but copying the job post word for word is a red flag
Who: Jason Pasola of global staffing firm Robert Half, speaking to KSAT News in San Antonio, Texas (11 November 2026).
What he said: "You want to tailor it to the job description when you are applying," he said, but copying the posting outright "indicates a red flag to an employer." He added that most of the companies he deals with run applications through screening technology before an HR professional looks at them.
Context: Pasola said this kind of screening has picked up over the last two years, with software scanning resumes for keywords taken from the job description. He suggested using AI tools to organize and format a resume, never to claim skills you don't have, and said he "absolutely" believes some qualified candidates are being overlooked because their resumes don't put their real skills up front.
What it means for you:
- Mirror the job description's key skills and terms where they truly match your experience, in your own sentences. Don't paste the posting into your resume.
- Use AI to restructure and tighten your resume, then check every line is true. Inflated skills tend to fall apart in screening calls and technical rounds.
- Put the skills the role asks for near the top (summary and first bullets), so both the software and the human reader find them fast.
Tailoring one resume per role takes time; Drivetube's Jobhunt plan builds a resume and matching cover letter for each job description from your own profile, with skills sorted into ATS-standard categories.
Source: KSAT, 11 Nov 2026