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The risk just isn’t worth what you could stand to gain. By Catherine Conlan Exaggerating the truth or outright lying on resumes isn’t unusual, but that doesn’t mean it’s an effective way to advance your career. "We've recently completed our latest hiring round of eight people," says Dave Davis, CEO and hiring manager at digital analytics agency. Our latest round was a complete disaster. It took four months. Candidate after candidate came in and were found to have lied on their resumes." It’s just not worth it to lie on your resume, Davis says. "Hiring managers were not born yesterday. A single question is enough to catch you in a lie. It causes an embarrassment and an awkward situation for everyone in the room." And once you’ve been caught, you’ve trashed your opportunity to get hired and damaged your reputation. Those are the obvious reasons not to lie on a
resume. Here some others. If you don’t have the exact skills an employer is looking for but still think you could be a good fit, make the case in your cover letter and let the hiring manager be the one to decide whether to call you in. "Hiring managers are more open to people with transferable skills these days, meaning you don't have to necessarily have direct experience in a field to be employed," says career coach. Let your credentials speak for themselves and make it clear you’re willing to learn if necessary. "It's far better to admit that you don't know
something," Davis agrees. "Passion and eagerness
to learn your way into a position is a far
greater quality than being a liar. It's the No.
1 quality I look for. Too many candidates
sabotage their chances." Big lies — such as made-up employers, job titles and inclusive dates of employment — get you bounced from consideration. Smaller lies may go unnoticed, but can land you in a dead-end job, says CEO Joseph Terach. In the long run, that can hurt your job satisfaction and even worse, your career. "One of the biggest small lies a job seeker can tell is about their career goals," Terach says. "Most job seekers fear the consequences that honesty would yield." For example, the honest answer might be "I don’t want to climb the corporate ladder. I see myself remaining in the role for which I’m currently applying." But many applicants instead say they want to achieve much bigger things. The reason: "Even though you may perform best in a steady work environment and prefer not to climb higher, you’re concerned that admitting as much will be viewed as a lack of ambition or, even worse, laziness," Terach says. Still, bending the truth about
your career goals is unfair to you and your
prospective employer. Assuming you get the
position, eventually the gap between what you
really wanted and what you said you wanted will
grow. "Life is short," Terach says. "Doing
things not suited to you or your talents is a
waste of something precious." Chances are, you’ve got some kind of online profile with your credentials, endorsements and recommendations on it. "Online profiles are public, thus it's far less likely a candidate will be bold enough to inflate their creds," says Stephanie Anderson, marketing communication strategist. The people you’ve worked with in the past know your skills — and may get called as references — even if you don’t put them in your official list of references.  |
