Career / Work · Advice & Questions · Oct 17

The recruiter rewrote my CV to say I led a project. I only supported it

Career / Work

The recruiter returned my CV with “led the system migration” in the first paragraph. I’d written “supported testing during the system migration.”

He said the new wording would get attention and that we could explain the details in an interview. I did meaningful work: I tested the booking screens, logged faults and helped colleagues try the new process. My manager planned the migration and made the decisions.

I asked whether “coordinated testing” would be better. The recruiter said I was underselling myself. Now I’m worried that disagreeing will cost me access to a role I genuinely want, while approving the CV would leave me defending an achievement I didn’t have.

He hasn’t sent it yet; he asked me to approve the edits today.

How would you answer? I’d like stronger wording, but I want it to be wording I can comfortably explain when someone asks what I actually led.

Discussion

3 community replies

@MaxOnMain

The sentence needs to describe the work you did. “Coordinated testing of the new booking screens, tracked faults and supported rollout” could be strong if each part is accurate. You don’t have to accept “led the migration” as the price of making the CV more confident. You’ve already identified why that phrase feels wrong.

@MorganSays

“We can explain it later” would leave the interview doing repair work on an impression created now. I’d send back the precise wording you approve and ask the recruiter to confirm that version is the one being forwarded. Your answer can be brief. This isn’t a debate about whether you deserve the opportunity.

@TheoInTransit

Could the recruiter have mistaken testing responsibility for responsibility for the whole project? Give him the division explicitly: you owned particular testing tasks; the manager owned the migration. He might revise it readily when the distinction is clear. If he still insists on the broader claim, the disagreement is no longer just about a more energetic verb.

The recruiter rewrote my CV to say I led a project. I only supported it

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