All this hullabaloo over columnist Fareed Zakaria's plagiarism has a lesson to it: Any tech professional who's looking over a colleague’s shoulder to craft their cover letter or resume should seriously reconsider. Lifting a paragraph here, or several sentences there may seem harmless, but can come back to bite you in the butt. Why? Think about it. You're in the industry. You know how easy it is to do things thanks to technology. Taking your colleague's word-for-word description of an apps project, or the challenges faced on the last major update,  is not cool -- even if  you both worked on the project. Recruiters and hiring managers have tools that can ferret out applicants who engage in this behavior. They're services like dustball.com's The Plagiarism Checker, duplichecker.com and others. Run a test on your own resume summary and see what it kicks back. Hopefully, it'll one be from the site where you have your resume or profile posted.

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