I usually go the other way and tone down my resume. Unfortunately, nearly every time I go to an interview their first assumption is that I have lied. I have found this often counts me out of jobs for which I am more than qualified. It would seem to me that honest people come last but I could not imagine lying to the extent that some of those I am lined up against do.

Here’s a good example, a few years ago I was interviewing a guy and noticed on his resume that he worked for a company I worked at. Unfortunately for him, this was a small company and he wasn’t one of the employees.

When I confronted him with this he told me the truth. It turns out that he was unemployed and the gap in his resume was causing him problems. I didn’t hold this against him because nearly everybody I met was lying on their resume and he had a family to feed so he actually had a good reason. I hired him and he was great!

Unfortunately, due to poor quality agencies and job seekers lying on their résumé’s (not just exaggerating) we now have a situation where many companies will only hire people they know. So if you don’t like lying you had better get your networking skills up to scratch!

How many job applications give a "laundry list" of skills that end up being of no relevance to the end job. Agencies often also pump up the required experience level their clients are after, in the view that it is a employers market. This leads to the ridiculous situation of adds requiring 10 years Java, or 7 years C#.

As a result I would imagine a great deal of prospective employees feel the need to inflate their resumes to match these inflated adds. At the end of the day, the actual job they may end up winning may require far less skills and experience than the add specified.

How about we all start over. Agencies stop putting out silly adds and applicants will start putting in realistic resumes?

Some, interesting arguments on this topic.

I believe if you are confident in yourself and confident on what you write on your resume, it should relect what you can do rather that what you have done, otherwise your employer does not know all this wonderful knowledge or potential you have. I want them to ask me on stuff I said I have done, it gives me a chance to show what I can do, even if I have not got any formal experience in it.

By the way, I have just turned down a job this morning, and accepted another, so as stated before the system does work.

I understand it can get humiliating sometimes, however when it comes to getting work, one has to get right back up on the horse and keep looking. Too many of us in IT give up too easily, imagine what salesman get up to each day, they must get rejected so many times, well IT consultants need to learn the skills and the mentality of other professions.

Maybe we are too used to be employed in such a good working environment, but things are soon to change if they havent already.

Everyone lies if they can get away with it. Your employer will lie as much as they can. Your rivals will lie so they get jobs ahead of you. The recruiter can be guaranteed to lie, even if it means breaking a contract.

Sheesh.... I couldn't imagine being even slightly dishonest on my resume. It would concern me that in an industry as small as IT is Aus that sometime, somewhere, there will be someone, who I have worked with in the past that, by chance, may be reviewing candidates and sees my resume. Probably not a great risk..... but then..... it's your career.

Should you lie on your Resume? There is only one answer - "No". What's more - you have it in writing. Think about that.

Ive lyied on my resume all the time, Even my degree qualifications.

With the extream number of applicants in the number of 300 per job. you have to bend the truth to get ahead.

Every one does it, lets be honest.

Ive got a few 1 year contracts out of it and made heaps.

Now i dont have to lye about them.

Recruitment agencies are fools if you can play there game.

Gees i made a lot of cash out of this industry.

Suckers. :)

Macka

Tech n Fun

I don't think falsifying the details on your resume in either of safe and ethical. Leave aside its being unethical, it even doesn't ensure that you're going to live by it.

my more comments can be read on,

www.ezinearticles.com/?Dont-Fake-It-Here,-Its-Your-Job&id=138821

Regards,

Vikas

There are a lot of things people do to cover up: are the following wrong or right? I don't have the answer: am just wondering:

How about:

Leaving off your resume a job that you were at for a short period of time and where you would get a bad reference

Showing years on your resume rather than months to cover periods of unemployment or short job durations

Similarly, not listing prior years of experience in a previous/different field

Not mentioning earlier jobs so you will appear younger and not as "over qualified"

Not mentioning the years of your degrees, again to seem younger

Writing "no" on the question of if you have any criminal convictions, despite having a record for an infraction/summary level citation (on the same level as a traffic ticket, which generally does not show up on a background check)

Giving a local address/contact number, which is actually the address of a friend, when you are trying to locate to an area

When is something "too much information" and in what cases does your employer have the right to know?

I've been actively seeking gainful employment as an engineer for years. I've never been anything but 100% in all my conversations, including resumes, letters and interviews, with employers and other colleagues.

I frequently suspect my honesty has prevented me from gaining the kind of work I desire. I'll admit areas where I may need time to get up to speed on principles I've not extensively used in practice since college, or that I've used software very similar to, but not identical with, the particular package a given company uses. (With the literlly hundreds of software packages used throughout the engineering fields to do the same thing, it is a wonder that anyone qualifies for some positions.)

Contrary to misrepresenting myself, I've actually been on the receiving end of lies from prospective employers who have claimed to check references when in fact my references report never having been contacted by the employer, who have claimed to be hiring when they in fact are not, and other shenanigans.

Don't even speak to me about recruiters. They've disappointed me, dropped the ball on me and lied to me so many times that I seldom if ever will do business with them. I've gotten interviews on at least five occasions with a company where the recruiter had failed.

As a manager, I have seen many resumes in my time. It is difficult to spot a liar or exaggerator in the paper works submitted -- that is until you actually speak to the person. It is then that I feel as if they are wasting my time. The worst part for them, is I can end up being so annoyed with the untruths that I will contact the referring agency and tell them.

Just a thought: If you need to endeavour to extend your experiences, it would be better to use:

1) Years, instead of Years/Months

ie change: ABC Company - Dec 1993 to Jan 1995

to: ABC Company - 1993 to 1995

This sounds like 3 years experience instead of 14 months.

2) Normalise the context to 2nd or 3rd normal form.

A resume is a tool used to get you an interview. But, it is also a written piece of evidence that can be used against you should you have broken the law.

My advice: If you must tread this path, tread carefully - however, Honesty is the best policy!

Something me to share

My Education in the IT industry started when there was a boom in IT industry and when I was ready for the market the recession came out. First year was very hard for me as I was working really hard to get any IT job. But my irony was that every company was looking for experienced professionals and I had none. After one year I decided to fake my resume with one year exp. and I did get the job but due to fake one I end up having heaps of responsibilities as can be assumed for an experienced professional. My first year gone so fast as i was working more than 12 hours a day to keep my pace up with out letting others know. But soon I was out as my responsibilities were increasing and I decided, after one year, to apply for other job and this time a correct resume. I did get a job and I must say my life was again back on track.

The moral of story is "if you lie then expect many knots in your tie".

Sometimes you have to lie. Especially if you're young.

Most entry-level jobs have "laundry lists" full of bullshit that is often irrelevent to the position. They ask for "experience" in their specific industry, and for what? Who needs experience to check a person into a room? File paperwork? Take an order? That can be learned! If you graudated high school, that ought to prove you're not mentally retarded, correct? If you have held a job in a different industry, and you were good at it, would it make a difference if you worked someplace new? How hard would it be to make the transition from one entry-level job to the other?

Entry-level positions are bogus. You can work for Blockbuster for $6-7 an hour (and even Blockbuster tries to bust your balls with their stupid on-line psychoanalysis test), or you can go for $10-12 and hour; enough to feed you AND your dog in this day and age. The more money you go after, the more bullshit you have to face (bigger "laundry lists"). After years of dealing with all that crap, you get older and you have no choice but to go for something that pays decent.

"Why have you worked in so many different industries? 1 year as a waiter, 6 months as a front desk agent, 2 years as warehouse worker... Why should we hire you when you'll probably choose to go elsewhere after a couple of months?"

Why hire any young person!? What the fuck? Am I supposed to work 1 job for the rest of my life? Am I supposed to know what I want to do with myself for the next 60 years!? I'm only 18-23!!! This ain't the fucking 50s anymore.

This is what my generation faces when they go for jobs. Any job. We have the skills to do pretty much any entry level job, but most companies make it difficult for us, and as a result, we lie on our resumes.

Some choose to write that they've worked for 4 years in the same industry; others choose to pretend they went to college for 2 years to explain how they know so much about computers, art, or even business (as if we can't learn that stuff on our own, reading books!). Can you blame them?

And men have it tougher. If you've got tits and a hot ass, chances are you can squeeze yourself into any entry-level position, whether you have experience of not. If you've got cock and balls, it's not that easy. Of course this depends on whether or not the "boss" is a chauvinist pig or a bra-burning feminist, but more often than not, that's the case. Most managers are men, and men like tits. If the manager is a female, she most-likely hates men, because she had to work harder to get where she is. You can see where I'm going with this...

Now, it's obviously wrong to say you're a doctor or a lawyer if you're not, but if you're good with computers, and you need to work to pay the bills, stretching the truth for that $11 and hour office job may not be such a bad idea. If you have skills and you can do more with your talent than stock shelves at Publix, why the hell not?

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Do what you have to do to survive and don't sell yourslf short.

- Mark

There is no ethical justification for lying on a resume and it is inherently unfair. Others may do it too but two wrongs don't make a right. The test of character is when there is actually some benefit to doing something immoral so this is the moment that matters. Don't kid yourself, by lying, anything you do get out of it is empty, worthless and undeserved.

I lied like hell on my resume when I applied for a analyst job at a Fortune 50 company several years ago.... Everything from my education to your work history has been fabricated... I have been promoted several times and now make over 100k... I do my job much better than my ivy leauge coworkers and do not regret my desicion.