Little white resume lies that leave a BIG BLACK MARK

Here’s the second part of an article that appeared in www.recruiterdaily.com.au on what recruitment consultants should scrutinise when they look at your resume. The first part is covered in my post don’t fly the resume red flag.

In the article, Organisational Psychologist from Adaps Joshua Wood says recruiters should scrutinise whether you as a job seeker:

–  inflate the importance of your role on your resume

–  embellish your achievements on your resume

–  have been completely upfront about your reasons for leaving a role

–  are misleading with the dates on your resume to confuse the recruiter about the length of your tenure

–  have actually directly managed staff or were only acting in that role

–  have exaggerated revenue figures on your resume

–  are vague about study, certification and degrees on your resume

–  have changed the academic dates on your resume to cover up failed subjects

–  have exaggerated your previous remuneration

Wood also suggests that recruiters watch out for subtleties in your language which can hint at embellishments on your resume. For example: did you initiate a project or were you managing a project? Did you resolve a problem or research the issue?

He also suggests that recruiters watch out for exaggerations on candidates’ career summaries or profiles, as these are relying on their perceptions of themselves and therefore harder to define than responsibilities.

One of my favourite resume exaggerations is easy to spot. It’s where you may write “client management”, instead of “customer service” for a role at McDonalds. Read this on top 10 resume mistakes where I talk about appropriate language.

Just as big a problem, I think, is where candidates talk down their achievements, strengths or responsibilities. Using the same example, you may say that you have excellent customer service skills, where in actual fact you were managing client relationships.

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Tagged as: resume, resume mistakes, secrets from recruitment consultants