Posted By: Heather Eagar In: Job Seeker - Resume When you’re drafting a resume, it is tempting to stretch the truth some so that you appear to be more impressive than maybe your skills might indicate. However, while there is such a thing as packaging your resume in a smart way, choosing words that tell the truth, yet sound sensational, for example, you want to avoid flat-out exaggerating.
When you’re drafting a resume, it is tempting to stretch the truth some so that you appear to be more impressive than maybe your skills might indicate. However, while there is such a thing as packaging your resume in a smart way, choosing words that tell the truth, yet sound sensational, for example, you want to avoid flat-out exaggerating.
So, how can you avoid crossing the fine line from smart resume packaging to exaggeration? Here are a few ideas to consider …
Choose Creative Ways to Describe Your Skills and Accomplishments
It’s one thing to choose a creative way to describe what you’ve accomplished in prior positions; fudging the truth is another matter altogether. If you are able to find creative words for what you’ve actually done, you’re considered a smart cookie. However, if you fudge the truth and tell a story that didn’t happen, you’re considered a liar.
It’s very important that you carefully choose what you write in your resume because everything can be tracked. So if you tell an employer that you were managed 10 employees in packing department, when in actuality you managed handing out daily assignments drawn up by the real manager of the packing department, you could find yourself in deep trouble for fudging the truth. Using action words like managed, oversaw, developed and arranged are good ways to make small tasks look bigger, as long as using them doesn’t result in a lie.
Get Used to Telling the Truth
How do you find the happy medium between exaggerating and underselling yourself? The best way is to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. For instance, if you’ve managed an average of 50 calls per day, successfully routing them to the appropriate party via the company’s complex phone system, yet on your resume, you write that you were "in charge of answering phones", you’re only telling a half-truth.
Of course, you don’t want to say that you developed the intricate phone system yourself because that would be an outright lie. So what’s a happy medium? Tell them that you "managed an average of 50 calls per day, successfully routing them to the appropriate party via the company’s complex phone system". Do you see how that works? You were much more specific about what you did and were able to tell the truth, making your accomplishment much more impressive without having to lie.
Use Your Cover Letter to Back You Up
If you feel that you simply do not have enough experience to make a hard sell in your resume without exaggerating, use your cover letter as a way to tell your stories in detail. Since resumes only leave room for one- and two-liners, they can feel restrictive. By using your cover letter to better describe your experience, you can help to make up for what your resume lacks. You don’t want to get into the habit of stretching the truth in your job applications. One little "white lie" can come back to bite you in a big way. Instead, find ways to creatively tell the truth about your accomplishments. No matter how small you think they are, they are yours and you should be proud of them.
Comments
Posted by: Jonathan Abamba
I quite agree to your explanation and position. However, how do you advertise yourself to be attracted and be bought by a potential highly placed employer in the labour market, when you do not add "those words" that will actually catch the attention of the employer. The way a product is advertised goes a long way to attracting customers and increasing sales (which in this case, is the salary to the employee).Please shed more light on this.
Posted by: Mike
The problem with this approach is that employers make you lie. They MAKE you lie. They always want someone who has 100% of the exact experience and skills that the job requires, rather than someone who has most of the skills and experience and who can learn fast. They never stop to wonder why someone would leave a job at one company for the exact same job at another. There are only two reasons I can think of. One is that the person is unhappy where they are now. This happens to good people, but it also happens to bad. The second reason is for more pay or better benefits. If you hire a person who only wants more pay or benefits, you're hiring someone who will spend their time looking for a better offer rather than working.
Posted by: scott ellison
Hello;I have been in sales and Partnership Marketing for quite sometime. I have posted great numbers with these companies. I was hired to do this as well as consult on private business issues. I also had to sign letters that prohibit me from disclosing key information on the company. About the only thing I can give out is the work I did in a general sense and I can mention my sale numbers only and that's about it...how does one do this or say in a resume?Scott Ellison
Posted by: John Forsyth
In my opinion you have to exaggerate. Simply having a smart resume won't separate you from the 1000s of resumes being submitted. You exaggerate by finding the importance of what you did and stating the impact; in numbers. Think about how marketing agencies sell products. The trick is that you need to back up everything you put on your resume. A flat out line would be ridiculous. In the end you'll put too much energy in remembering all the lies you told. Energy that can be used to prepare a stunning resume or prepare for an interview.
Posted by: Dan Folkerts
I know that lieing on your resume is not good. I was actually caught doing it one time and it cost me a job I really wanted. But, I am in sales, and most companies won't even look at you if you have been out of work for sometime, because they look at it as you being out of touch with your clients, and that is what they want, someone who can bring in new clients to them right away. I know, because I had a company tell me this.
