My friend who works for a leading PR agency had recently applied for a job with a small IT company that is into Educational Software. This was her attempt to join a regular organisation from the proprietorship environment of PR Agencies. Since she does not have experience in making a Media Plan from a company perspective vis a vis a PR agency perspective she approached me for help. So I sat down with her and made entire years Media Plan to roll out the company's product in a phased manner. This was the company's attempt to make a splash in the media. The Media Plan was a kind of a pre-interview test for her.
The Media Plan was approved instantly and she was called for an interview. She went for the interview, but the interviewer failed to appear as he was apparently busy. This went on two or three times. The HR manager was always evasive anytime she called to enquire. Finally she gave up calling them.
Today she got a shock when her own agency was sent a mail from the IT company asking them for a quote for a Media Plan and roll out that the IT company had apparently "prepared themselves". And guess what? It was the very same plan that I had made.
I just cannot believe this. My friend cannot fight without letting her present employer know; besides she has lost faith in the system, because in jobs like Communication and PR, written tests are the norm. But if your written tests are used to cheat you into giving free work then what do you do?
I am so pissed off!!
16 comments:
Aashik: There is nothing she can do :(
Alexis: Thank you for pointing out the typos. I did write this in a huff!!! She is feeling miserable and I am feeling cheated. That Plan would have set the company back by at least 50 K if they had got it done through a PR Agency. Anyways I told her to forget this incident and try again :) Thank you so much for your encouraging words!
Let go..this too shall pass.. sun does rise each morning..so u have a new day.. ur friend has a whole world to conquer..think not what you lost.. think of what is ahead..
Sarah: Thank you :)
Not to sound sanctimonious...but the fact is that she asked for ur help whereas the assignment was for her alone(correct me if i am wrong...was she allowed to take help from others?). So theoretically she cheated (though its a hard word to use in this sitn) which means that she cant really complain if the co cheated her (afterall a co's morality is only as good as the combined morality of it's employees)
i guess this does sound sanctimonious..but i have seen too many ppl fudging their cv's and doing similar stuff with their pre-interview assignments.
Bomb them!
matterofchoice; You sanctimonious you!!!!! :))
The plan was made by both of us. I merely aligned it from the company perspective.She is a highly exp Media Person, but thinks from an agency angle ....hope you understand that. I cannot explain it unless you know the difference.Once you join a company you automatically think from the company perspective..in fact the job becomes easy as you tend to get involved in your product life cycle and hence are able to guide it along according to market indicators. As an agency person you cannot keep track of your product on a daily basis and have to depend on briefs from the marketing people. Nothing like being in an arena to smell the fight :)
There is absolutely no fudging of resume here. She is a highly qualified and experienced media person. This job would be a piece of cake for her. In fact she is overqualified for this post as this is a small company. Her talents would be best utilised by a Microsoft...but for that she needs to show exp in an IT environment in her resume or start as a fresher.
She has helped me so much and vice versa. In the communication field help networking is common :) You remember my interview and how the whole world came to know about it? :p That's how tight the community is.
Dr pissed: That is exactly how I feel.
its not the company's fault ..some a$$ in that company must have put it across as his/her own idea .
on the other hand , looks like u r pretty gud at wht u do ...i guess its a compliment for you (but given in the worst possible manner )
Silver...As Jagan told, it might be the work of a single dumb element.
Its just another incident. We already saw a lot of similar ones. We are yet to see a lot more. Just dont lose heart at this - There are lot more to do!
awww mann..thats so sad..plagiarism rules. everybody wants to cut,copy and paste their lives into fame and fortune.
why dont you write to that IT company saying it is your plan? and if they proceed they are going to be in soup. you need not mention your friends name. i dont think they will want to take up the case with her anyway?..hmm..is there another way..
there is! enjoy the rest of the day :) well seriously, if there is not much to be done, then let it go. these things happen. like we have some profs (luckily very few such idiots) who make post grads write assignments, and sooner or later they appear as publications done by the profs!
As alexis said, she can't do much on this. I have been a partial victim of this, like there is a concept of billability in IT Cos. You are valued only if you are billable. And its the Billable resource who will be known by the customer. I was a non billable resource once and my work which I did went in another resource's name who was billable and so did the appreciations too :)
But then there I could shout and there was a Boss who knew who did it actually. In this case can't help.
Strange ironies. One day you meet an autowallah, who did you a generous help and another day you meet a corporate pig who did you or atleast her harm. Strange is the World, but not the end of it.
Cheers!! (For Booze Too :) )
Hmm..So many times it has happened that I write a piece of code and put a comment with my name and company IDs, n later find that someone has changed the credentials on the code before sending it to the guy onsite..:)..well, I responded by directly mailing the onsite guy and telling him wht exactly was happening..
It really hurts when you sit on nightouts n develop something, n someone else does this behind ur back..
Jagan:Thanks da :) But it was whetted by quite a few people in the company!
Pophabhi:Thank you and guess you are right...I just needed to let off steam. Maybe I will convert this blog into a sauna and steam blogroom. With the amount of steam I am gonna generate blogging about things that piss me off, I am sure it will be a successful venture :p
Mind Curry: "everybody wants to cut,copy and paste their lives into fame and fortune"
Another gem from the MC Mines :)
I have forgotten about it already doc. You ought to patent your 'quick cures'!!! :)
Dhanush: I can't do much except blog and rant about it :) Ironical as you said that I meet a gentleman auto driver one day and a corporate pig the next day!
Reshmi: You said it gal, it hurts when people take your work, I have had that exp. in the past too!
There is something called iruttadi in malayalam!!! a friend in infy discovered a colleague deleting his code...he called around a few of our friends and gave the scoundrel the iruttadi treatment.
i guess ur up against a whole company this time...not just against the person who plagiarised. they are more likely to close ranks even if u decide to act.
get some booze and try to chill-out...what else can i say!
Jiby: That is exactly what I did *hic* :p
that is very disgusting!! I could not believe they can do something like this.. I wish there would have been some law to punish such an act.
Venus: There is a law, but then every document that you send out wil have to be copyrighted and that will slow things down....
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