Don’t let your resume leave a bad taste in someone’s mouth
➔ It goes without saying that one should never lie in a resume. Just think about all the celebrities, politicians and other notables who have fudged things only to have them come back and bite them in their butts when the truth comes out. Oh, the shame.
In your case, there probably won’t be much public retribution. Your comeuppance will likely have a much more profound impact on your personal space: You probably won’t get the job.
Balance the potential good with…
So you have to ask yourself: Is it really worth it? Hardly.
“OK. That’s the easy part. Don’t lie. We get it. So what?”
The “so what” is the age-old appearance of impropriety. If it looks like you’re lying, your prospective employer – who most likely has encountered resumes and interviewees who have not been 100 percent truthful – may just assume that you are stretching the truth and… oops! There’s the door. Don’t call us, we’ll call you. “Next!”
How do keep from not falling into that trap? Just like the Boy Scouts, be prepared.
Give your resume a good once over. Think carefully about all the anecdotes that you could mention in the course of an interview. Can you prove everything that you say about yourself and your accomplishments? Are there verifiable means to corroborate your claims?
This isn’t to say that you need to have every report, every source, every contact and/or statistic at the ready for immediate justification. But you should know where and how you can support your claims. How can you prove everything you just told the interviewer?
It’s just another log on the fire of being prepared.