Tell the truth: you’ve copied other company’s job descriptions. Maybe not the whole thing, but when you write them, you start with ideas and bullet points and whole paragraphs from other organizations. Heck, there are companies who sell “standardized” job descriptions for you to copy.

If you do, you’re not allowed to complain when prospects copy lines from books to fill their resumes and cover letters.

Not that it matters, when you copy someone else’s job description, you’re getting a copy of a copy. And when you do that enough, you lose definition, you lose that thing that makes you you.

This is why I am so serious about telling company stories: because the foundation on which you are recruiting is seriously flawed. Job descriptions are nearly worthless even when you do them the “right” way. And when you realize how much are just copied from other jobs and other companies, you have to wonder how solid the ground really is.