Guest Author - Kristen Welcome
A recent discussion in the Job Search forum got me thinking about the temptation that job seekers can face to include information on their resume that is exaggerated or simply untrue. We’ve all seen movies in which an unskilled but scrappy character creates a completely fictitious resume in order to land a stellar job and make a lot of money. (This will date me, but the first movie that comes to my mind with this plot device is “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead.”) Of course, in the real world it doesn’t usually work out this way—and even if you can pull it off in the short term, dishonesty can have long-term consequences. Here are a few reasons why dishonesty on your resume won’t pay off.
1. People check.
First and most simply, hiring managers investigate the contents of your resume. They will call your references, they may contact employers on your resume who are not listed as references, and they will verify your educational background. If you claim to have saved your last employer thousands of dollars, make sure that the employer will confirm this assessment.
2. If you haven’t had the experiences you claim, it will show during the interview.
Although a dishonest resume might make you look good on paper, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll be able to answer questions about the experiences credibly during an interview. If you haven’t told the whole truth on your resume, it can be difficult to keep your story straight when you’re answering questions, and hiring managers will smell a rat.
3. A dishonest resume will establish incorrect expectations regarding your job performance.
Even if you manage to lie your way through an interview, false information on your resume will create inaccurate expectations about your job performance. For instance, if you require training for a particular aspect of a new job, you’re unlikely to get that training if you’ve convinced your employer that you’ve been performing that very function for five years already. And of course, you’re unlikely to keep a job when you can’t live up to your employer’s expectations.
4. Hiring managers talk to each other.
You may think that if you get found out, you’ll only ruin your chances with that individual employer—but remember that people in an industry do tend to talk to one another, and people change companies as well. If you are deliberately dishonest with one employer, you may find yourself shut out of every job in your industry.
5. You cheat yourself by being dishonest.
While an employer has every right to feel betrayed if they learn that an employee obtained their position dishonestly, you cheat yourself most of all. If you receive a job offer dishonestly, you’ll never know whether you could have achieved the same position simply being yourself. You cause yourself unnecessary anxiety and job risk, and you will never be able to be yourself at the new job.
While it may be tempting to embellish your resume to increase your chances of landing a job offer, the best way to impress a hiring manager is to play up your true positive qualities, rather than touting qualities you don’t actually possess. Not only are hiring managers particularly good at ferreting out inaccurate information, you’ll regret taking the risk later when you have to keep up the charade instead of being yourself in your workplace. In the long run, it simply isn’t worth it.
