It’s been said, “the truth always comes out”. Think twice before embellishing your resume. Period. Here is an article from the OC Register with the Top Lies used on resumes:
Oh no! You mean I wasn’t really a rocket scientist?
Scott Thompson, former head of Yahoo, lost his job this week, yet another victim of fictionalizing a college degree on his resume. But apparently that’s not as unusual as you might suspect.
Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the international outplacement firm, lists these as the most common things that it says people fabricate (we say lie about) on their resumes:
- Education: Listing a degree from a school never attended; inflating their grade point average and graduate honors or citing a degree from an online, non-accredited “education” institution.
- Job title: Making up a title or boosting an actual title by one or more levels in hopes of obtaining better salary offers
- Compensation: Inflating current or previous salary and benefits to secure more money from prospective employer
- Reason for leaving: Saying it was a mass downsizing when the discharge was based on performance; asked to leave, but saying you quit; or underplaying or completely hiding poor relationships with superiors
- Accomplishments: Overstating one’s contributions to a team project or company performance; claiming to have received special recognition or exaggerating their level of participation in an important aspect of the business.