As we ponder authenticity, there was an interesting article in the Globe and Mail recently about lying on your resume.
Seems it is not so uncommon for the truth to be stretched on resumes.
And it may be particulary popular right now, as people like Dave Dineson, of BackCheck, a company that other companies hire to conduct employment pre-screening, are reported to believe that this dishonesty increases when the economy sours. Desperate times induce desperate measures.
But these desperate measures can so easily backfire. Companies can do background checks and have several ways of verifying actual work history and educational credentials. Even things that aren’t so formally documented, things like responsibilities in a past job, can be checked during interviews (it can be hard to dupe experienced interviewers once they start zeroing in on an area that seems suspicious). And references can be called for verification as well.
I bet some people probably think it is a risk worth taking, and have gotten job offers and not been found out.
But getting “found out” about dishonestly is only part of the problem with this practice. However desperate you are feeling, does it help to feel like you’ve been dishonest on your resume? Job search is a time when you need the most confidence you can muster – and sacrificing your integrity isn’t usually a confidence-booster.
The most interesting part of this article for me was how it got me wondering about what we are defining as honesty or dishonesty.
A few types of dishonesty on resumes that we can probably all agree on:
- Fabricating a degree or other academic credential
- Indicating that a degree was received, when you’re actually still a few, or even just one, credit short
- Making up work experience
- Making work experience sound bigger and better – for example saying you have supervised 10 people, when it was only a couple
However, I was surprised to read this “Older candidates sometimes leave out the early portion of their careers because they don’t want to show their age or have a resume that appears too stale or lengthy, Mr. Davis said” (Mr Davis is a recruitment consultant).
This is dishonest?
Isn’t it accepted/assumed that resumes are targeted? And targeted usually means you pick and choose what to say based on what you believe to be most relevant. This is why “camp counsellor,” “catering assistant,” and “gas jockey” no longer appear on my resume.
I’m not trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes and I’m not worried that the dates will emphasize my age (not that that is yet a concern as I am still just mid-career). Older stuff can be just not relevant.
And, even if it is relevant, is there room to list everything? In addition to my high school jobs, I leave off early “professional” related jobs as well because I’ve done more interesting, more recent, and more senior roles since. Is it dishonest to emphasize the most recent parts of your work history?
And why is this comment directed at older workers? Yes, they can be concerned about revealing their age, but might they have other good reasons for leaving off the early parts of their career history? I get the feeling that leaving off early jobs may not be seen as dishonest when I do this, but may be seen as dishonest for older workers (there may be some subtle discrimination happening here).
What do you think? Is it dishonest to leave off the early portion of your work history?
Authenticity, Ethics, Integrity, Resumes Authenticity, honesty, lying, older workers, resume