lying | Robin's Resumes (r)

Resume Q&A: Am I Lying on My Resume?

Sep 23 2018

Q. I know you should never tell lies on a resume, but It never seems to me that I am telling the complete truth. It seems like I’m telling a lie if I simply summarize my early jobs or brag that I met my sales quota when I know that some people did even better or, worst of all, I ask someone else write my resume. Where do you draw the line between the truth and lying?

A. I applaud you for wanting to stick to the truth in your resume. But you should keep in mind that your resume is not a biography. It is a selection from your career history; and it is your story, not anyone else’s, told in the most efficient and powerful way possible.

Your resume is a tool. It shows employers that you have the skills, education, accomplishments, and potential that they are looking for. You are going to bore recruiters and hiring managers if you try to list everything you did in every job you ever held—that is information they do not want or need.

Let’s say you are applying for a job as a shoe salesperson. If early in your career, you worked as a gardener, you should mention that job; but if it has nothing to do with your ability to sell shoes, you do not need to give details. Your resume should always focus on what the hiring manager and recruiter need to know. You should find that information in the job posting or advertisement.

When you write that you recently sold 100 pairs of shoes in a week, you do not need to mention every brand or type of shoe unless the hiring manager or recruiter specifically asked for that information. You do not need to mention that someone else in your department sold 125 shoes; the important truth is that you accurately describe what you yourself accomplished.

Now let us tackle the question of whether people who use professional resume writers are lying. I write executive resumes all the time; if the executives of companies rely on professional resume writers, you can, too. This is a question of skill sets: you are not a professional resume writer. We always turn to professionals when we lack essential skills. For example, if you own a house, but hire a licensed electrician to rewire it, are you lying about owning the house? Of course not. If you have built a career, but you lack the skills to write about it fluently, hire a professional resume writer. The result is still your resume.

As a certified, professional resume writer and career coach, I can help create a resume that truly reflects who you are and the value you would bring to a future employer. And that’s no lie! Please contact me today.

The Most Common Resume Lies

Apr 24 2016

If you ever thought about stretching the truth on your resume, you may want to rethink the strategy. The statistics on the amount of lying in resumes are stunning: one study claims that 53% of applicants lie. However, that is not a green light for joining the liars. It simply means that hiring managers and recruiters are well aware of the situation and have re-doubled their efforts to check out the facts on resumes.

The most common lies that appear on resumes involve dates of employment (shaving off or adding months and even years), inflating accomplishments and skills (including job titles), faking credentials (including education and professional licenses), and providing false references.

These lies are easy for companies to check and they immediately disqualify a candidate from consideration. The mantra of most companies is “verify, verify, verify.” They call previous employers, they call references, and they check online to see if the information on the resume matches with the information that appears in social media, professional sites, and other locations.

Pre-employment screening companies specialize in verifying information about job candidates. Criminal background, driving record, and credit history checks are easier than ever to perform. Truly, your life is out there on the internet.

However, even if a lying candidate is eventually offered a job, inflated accomplishments and fake credentials have a habit of showing up in job performance, ensuring a quick end to the new hire’s career. Even the best scam artist finds it difficult to keep up a false identity hour after hour, day after day, for an entire lifetime. Someone eventually catches on.

There are many cases of people lying about their credentials causing them to not only lose their jobs, but also lose their careers. For example, a few years ago, the Director of Admissions from my alma mater, MIT, lost her job and career. When she applied to MIT for a job a couple of decades before she became the Director of Admissions, she had lied about graduating with a Bachelor’s degree for a job that did not require the degree. When she became a force for change in admission policies for colleges and universities, someone investigated her background. When they found out she lied about her degree and outed her, she lost her job and her ability to ever serve in that capacity. She was an excellent Director of Admissions, with a strong reputation for doing a fantastic job. However, since she had lied decades before, she lost her standing in the community.

In addition, in many states and on federal government applications, lying about a degree is a misdemeanor or can even be a felony.

If you have concerns about your resume, there are much better and less fraught ways to address a problem than lying about it. I have 20 years of experience in handling sensitive information in resumes and I can help you.

What Not to Do: Countdown of Four Things to Avoid on Your Resume

Dec 01 2012

Number four in our countdown of things not to do on your resume is keyword spam. Modern Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)—the software that “reads” resumes to save humans work—are aware of context. If you are a chemical engineer, the terms “chemical,” “engineer,” “engineering,” and so on should appear naturally in the description of your career. That is a better way of handling keywords than listing them over and over with no regard for context.

Number three is sending your resume to a resume writer who is not qualified. The unqualified people include not only family and friends (no matter how well meaning) but those who advertise themselves as professional resume writers without any of the credentials. By way of contrast, I am a member of the top three professional organizations in the resume writing field, namely Career Directors International (CDI), Professional Association of Resume Writers and Career Coaches (PRWA/CC), and the National Resume Writers Association (NRWA); I speak at many resume writing conferences and webinars; and I have more than 20 years of experience. Those qualifications are the definition of “professional.”

Number two is focusing on skills instead of accomplishments. Take our chemical engineer example. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 32,000 chemical engineers were employed in the U.S. in 2008 alone. A list of skills would be identical for all 32,000. None of them would stand out to a company as the perfect hire. But if they concentrated on accomplishments, on what they did with those skills, then some of them would clearly match the company’s requirements, culture, and expectations more closely than others. Want to stand out from your competition? Concentrate on accomplishments.

Number one on our countdown of things to avoid is lying. Companies will check the facts you give them. They will ask you questions during the interview to confirm what you’ve told them. Inconsistencies, hesitations, and confusion will alert them to problems they don’t want to deal with.

If you have trouble creating a strongly written resume that clearly and truthfully demonstrates your value to future employers, turn to a professional resume writer. Turn to Robin’s Resumes®.