Tempting as it is to embellish a degree, a job title, or a job description on your resume, don’t do it. In the context of applying for a job — or running for political office — there’s no such thing as a little white lie. Whether a small embellishment or a large exaggeration, once exposed, it will indicate that you are unworthy of another’s trust.
As we’ve seen with the recently elected Republican congressman from New York, George Santos, whose lies uncovered by the New York Times included a “sizable list of falsehoods about his professional background, educational history, and property ownership,” the truth will be revealed. Santos’ admission that he had embellished his resume is no basis for exoneration.
Now that the internet is packed with personal data, verifying your information is not difficult. Exposure to even the smallest inconsistency in the claims you make on your resume can harm your reputation and career. In short, never give in to the temptation to embellish or exaggerate.
When representing yourself to a potential employer, resist over-inflating or misrepresenting your experience in any of the following instances:
1. Touting skills you don’t possess. Building a birdhouse for your nephew doesn’t make you a contractor, just as knowing how to order from an ethnic restaurant menu doesn’t make you proficient in another language. Slight exposure to a qualification can never equate to aptitude. Once you’re required to make good on your hyperbole, you’ll be exposed as an audacious imposter and shown the door.
2. Claiming credit where credit isn’t due. Don’t embroider your responsibility on a team project into a “lead” role or a supervisory position. Claiming that you led or individually delivered a project may seem hard to disprove, but a few probing questions in an interview — such as how you were chosen to lead the initiative or how you measured results — will likely uncover the lie.
3. Describing your degree inaccurately. If you fell short of earning a degree, as has now been revealed in the case of Representative Santos, don’t mislead others about your academic credentials. A quick inquiry with the institution will reveal the falsehood. You’re better off stating your completed coursework on your resume to address the needed qualifications and that you’re X number of credits shy of a degree.
4. Covering up gaps in your employment. An unexplained employment gap on a resume raises a red flag for employers. It indicates an inability to find a job or some sort of poor performance. But trying to cover up interludes in your employment history by eliminating months and only listing years will be considered disingenuous if discovered. Inquiries with former employers about employment often result only in verifying dates of employment and job title because it’s illegal in certain locations to give out more information.
5. Representing coursework as work for a client. Product or design proposals assigned by a professor can be included in a portfolio, but only when they’re properly portrayed as coursework — not commissioned by a client. For example, a job candidate represented new designs for Crocks shoes created for a college assignment as work that the company commissioned. But questions regarding the project’s results during the interview instantly exposed the falsehood.
6. Misconstruing freelance work as full-time employment. If you worked for a firm as a contractor or gig worker, never claim the firm as a former employer. Again, as can be learned from the exposure of George Santos’ lies, he claimed to work for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, even though both companies had no records of his employment. Rather, he worked for a firm that connected its investors with potential clients.
7. Exaggerating your position. This is where inaccurate word choice will get you into trouble. If you say that you “oversaw” others when you collaborated with them or that you were a “decision maker” when you only offered suggestions, the inaccuracies will bite you. Once a hiring manager asks for specifics related to your so-called experience, the vague responses you offer, or the descriptions you provide that aren’t consistent with the role, will reveal that you’ve overly enhanced your position.
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Remember that veering from the truth on your resume or representing yourself to a potential employer will come out in the end. Instead, when you’re forthcoming about any shortfalls in your experience or skills, your candidness will stand out as a display of honesty and uprightness.
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Vicky Oliver is a leading career development expert and the multi-best-selling author of five books, including 301 Smart Answers to Tough Interview Questions (Sourcebooks 2005), named in the top 10 list of “Best Books for HR Interview Prep,” and Power Sales Words: How to Write It, Say It and Sell It with Sizzle (Sourcebooks, 2006). She’s a sought-after speaker, seminar presenter, and popular media source, having made over 901 appearances in broadcast, print, and online outlets. For more information, visit vickyoliver.com.
By Vicky Oliver