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Lie about your credentials, kill your career
Excerpted from The Truth about Getting Your Point Across...and
Nothing But the Truth
Notre Dame football coach George O'Leary resigned five days
after being hired, admitting he lied about his academic and
athletic background. O'Leary claimed to have a master's degree
in education and to have played college football for three
years, but checks into his background showed it wasn't true.
Veritas CFO Kenneth Lonchar was fired because he claimed he had
a Masters of Business Administration from Stanford University.
Further research showed that he did not hold an MBA from any
school. Ironically, Veritas in Latin means "truth".
Joseph Ellis, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, was suspended
for a year from Mount Holyoke College for lying about serving in
the Vietnam War.
Each of these examples, while high-profile and extreme, all fell
from the same tree; people lying on their resumes to help
influence an employer to hire them. Aside from the fact that
each of the above cases resulted in job loss or suspension; they
also all endured the humiliation of being publicly labeled as a
liar. Not the best way to be remembered.
Resumes by nature are meant to inform, impress, and inspire a
potential employer and get the employer to want to talk to you.
Most employers only spend about twenty seconds looking at each
resume they receive, and worse, most employers view the
information contained on resumes as a way to weed out applicants
. Putting your best foot forward to present a concise,
compelling case for why you should be hired is crucial to
getting you invited to the party.
Throughout my career I've interviewed hundreds of candidates for
a wide variety of jobs. Many of the candidates that I've
interviewed were upstanding, honest, and candid and went on to
have successful careers at my company. Of those who didn't get
hired, many lost out because of boastful claims made on their
resume that they were unable to substantiate during the
interview process. As an interviewer, I intentionally focused on
claims that were exceptional to truly understand how they did it
and to see if the claim was authentic or bogus. Authentic claims
went a long way toward recommending a "hire" decision; bogus
claims got an automatic "no hire" without further consideration.
Let me put this as plainly as I can. Lies about your credentials
can permanently kill your career. Putting bogus, or even mildly
aggressive, claims on your resume can hurt you in a couple of
ways. The first question that arises pertains to competence.
Bogus claims will cause a potential employer to question whether
you possess the skills required to perform the job. The second
question, which is far more important for me, pertains to
integrity. If a candidate is willing to stretch the truth on a
single fact on his or her resume, what else is he or she not
being truthful about? Having your integrity questioned by the
interviewer is pretty much your one-way ticket home.
The lesson learned here is simple; any lie, even the littlest of
white lies, has no place on a resume and will come back to bite
you. Assume that each and every word on your resume is going to
be checked, questioned, and scrutinized during an interview and
verification. Be able to substantiate facts, metrics, and
credentials with backup information and provide references where
necessary.
Having said all this, do your best to sell yourself on your
resume and dazzle prospective employers with your
accomplishments, credentials, and experience. Wow them during
your twenty seconds of fame. Just make sure that what they see
is you and not some figment of your imagination.
About the author:
Lonnie Pacelli has over 20 years' experience with Accenture and
Microsoft and is currently president of Leading on the Edge™
International (http://www.leadingonedge.com). Lonnie's books
include "The Project Management Advisor: 18 Major Project
Screw-Ups and How to Cut Them Off at the Pass" and "The Truth
About Getting Your Point Across"
(http://www.leadingonedge.com/truth)
Lonnie Pacelli
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