Should You Lie On Your Resume To Get A Better Job?

It can be tempting to lie on your resume to make me it appear more impressive. Is it a good idea, though? Read on to find out Steve Blank’s experience when it came to choosing whether to lie or not.

I got my first job in Silicon Valley, through luck on my part and desperation on the employer’s part. My resume didn’t have to go on: four years in the Air Force building a SCRAM system for a nuclear reactor and a startup in Ann Arbor, Mich., and nothing else. It was in my second startup in Silicon Valley that both my life and career took an interesting turn. A recruiter headhunted me while I was working in product marketing and offered to introduce me to a lucrative startup making workstation.

“This is a technology-driven company, and your background seems perfect. Why don’t you send me a resume and I’ll forward it.” A few days later, I got a call back from the recruiter. “Steve, you left off your education. Where did you go to school?”

“I never finished college,” I said.

My answer was followed by a long pause. “Steve, the former VP of sales and marketing, who managed their engineering department was a professor of computer science at Harvard, and his previous job was overseeing the Advanced Systems Division at Xerox PARC. In fact, the majority of the sales were formerly design engineers. I can’t recommend a candidate without a college degree. Why don’t you come up with something?”

I have never forgotten this instant of the conversation. At that moment, I realized I needed to make a choice. But I was clueless about how serious, crucial and indelible it would be. Truth, it would’ve been really easy to make something up and anyway, the recruiter supported the idea. “No one checks education anyway,” he said. This was way before the advent of the internet.

• Should you lie on your resume?
• How will you get caught if you lie on your resume
• What to do when you have lied on your resume

Should you lie on your resume?

Making The Choice About My Resume
rnI told the recruiter I’d think about it and I did for quite a while actually. Finally, after a couple of days, I forwarded my updated resume, and he sent it on to Convergent Technologies. Later, I was invited to interview with the company. I can hardly remember much from the interview, apart from my discussion with Ben Wegbreit, the vice president of sales and marketing.

Wegbreit looked at my resume and said, “You know you’re here interviewing because I’ve never come across a resume like this. You don’t have any college listed, and there’s no education section. You put ‘Mensa’ here,” he said, pointing to the section where education goes typically. “Why?” I looked back at him and said, “I thought Mensa might get your attention.”

Wegbreit just looked at me for an awkward amount of time. Then unexpectedly said, “Tell me what you did in your previous companies.” I was under the impression that this was going to be a storytelling interview like the rest. But instead, the minute I said, “My first startup used CATV coax to implement a local-area network for process control systems.” (Thirty-five years ago, pre-Ethernet and TCP/IP, that was pretty cutting-edge.) Wegbreit said, “Why don’t you go to the whiteboard and draw the system diagram for me?”

Do what? Draw it? I dug deep and spent 30 minutes sketching, trying to figure everything out. With Wegbreit harassing me with questions, I could hardly concentrate. And I left a bunch of empty spaces where I couldn’t recall some of the fine points.

After describing it, I went towards the seat, but Wegbreit stopped me. “As long as you’re at the whiteboard, why don’t we go through the other two companies you were at.” I couldn’t believe it. By this time I was mentally drained, but we spent another 30 minutes with me sketching and Wegbreit asking questions.

Finally, I sat down. Wegbreit looked at me for a while, not uttering a word. Then he stood up and opened the door, beaconing me to leave. He shook my hand and said, “Thanks for coming in.” What? That’s it? Did I get the job or not?

Epilogue
rnThree and a half years later, I was a VP of marketing at Convergent, working for Wegbreit. He became my mentor— and for the entirety of my career — my associate at Ardent and my partner and co-founder at Epiphany.
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rnEvery moment I read about an executive who was found in a resume scandal, I look back at that moment I had to choose.

Lessons Learned

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• Ethical dilemmas will haunt you during your entire career.
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• Making the wrong choice is often easier.
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• These choices will seem like trivial and inconsequential shortcuts — at the time.
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• Some of them will have life-long consequences.
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• It’s never the lie that catches up with you, it’s the cover-up.
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How will you get caught if you lie on your resume

According to a survey, more than 75% of employers have found a lie on a resume while another survey report indicated that the majority of job seekers who lied tried to get away with a job title, academic degrees, exaggerated skill sets and responsibilities, dates of employment and so on.

From the above facts, it’s quite clear that employers and hiring managers are clued in on the fact that some job seekers either lie or exaggerate in their applications. What’s worse, it’s now easier than ever for employers to discover inconsistencies on your application. Here are ways you will get caught in a lie.

Your school can’t confirm you graduated
rnClaiming to have gone to a fancy world-class school when this is not the case can be the worst thing you could choose to lie about on your resume. While some hiring managers may take your word for it, others may decide to call the school directly during the background check.

You fail the skills test
rnEverybody wants to give the impression that they are good at everything. However, proving that you actually have these skills is something entirely different. And employers know this, so don’t be surprised if you’re asked to verify your skills through tests.

The dates don’t add up
rnAttempting to lie about employment gaps in your career never goes well. Imagine a scenario where the hiring manager decided to call your former employer and finds out that you lied about the date you got laid off. It’s best to indicate valid dates and explain the employment gap in your cover letter. Alternatively, if you feel these gaps will make your application look bad, consider including volunteer or consulting work experience if you have any.

The job titles are too good to be true
rnBarely two years out of university, and already holding a high job position? Expect the hiring manager to ask questions about your roles and responsibilities to justify your job title. Inflated job titles will definitely reveal themselves during a background check.

Providing vague skills and experiences
rnApplicants can lie about their skills and experiences by using uncertain terms to describe them. The use of ambiguous phrases such as “familiar with” or “involved in” demonstrates the possibility of trying to cover up the lack of direct experience.

Your references don’t support you
rnIf you’re a pro at lying, you may be able to get through the door and into the interview stage easily. But you won’t be able to count on your references to back you up. Your references can only reveal the true extent of your job responsibilities or the truth about your so-called accomplishments. And even if your references back you up, your prospective employer might as well decide to call your ex-boss and find out about your self-promotion from a junior position to a senior position.

Background checks
rnOver 70% of employers conduct online background checks on potential employees before offering them a job while the other 30% conduct formal background checks. If through this checks the employer realizes that you’ve lied about critical facts, professional qualifications, employment history and so on, don’t expect a job offer.

Other factors
rnFactors such as body language cues can also be a giveaway during the interview if you’ve lied on your resume. For instance, a lack of eye contact or fidgeting, touching your nose are all subtle clues.

What to do when you have lied on your resume

While honesty is the best policy, it’s not always the case. It’s common for job seekers to stretch the truth or lie in their applications in an attempt to land work. As tempting as it may be, lying on your resume is a terrible idea for many reasons, the least being you’ll get caught. From the background check to the meetings that are part of the interview process, there are just way too many opportunities to come clean

Even if you got hired, you’re not off the hook, the truth may still come out, and you may lose your job. What’s worse, your reputation will also go down the drain. And it’s harder to get employed when you have a termination for cause in your work history. But, if you are honest during the initial interview process, the worst that could happen is you won’t get the job.

So, what should you do if you’ve already lied and are looking for ways to cope with this ethical dilemma and the possible consequences? Read on to find out:

Update your resume
rnUnfortunately, there is no guarantee that you’ll be up for consideration for the job or even get an offer, but you could fix your resume and provide truthful facts. You should then give the interviewer your updated resume and inform them that you noticed some inconsistencies in the previous one and choose to revise it.

Tell the truth
rnComing clean to the hiring manager is also another option. However, this will most likely kick you out from being considered. On the bright side, you won’t be hired based on a stretched truth and won’t have to worry about the consequences.

Ignore it
rnEver heard of the phrase, ignorance is bliss? Well, it is, but not always. Opting to do nothing about your lie is also an option that could potentially lead you to lose a job once you are caught. The problem with doing nothing is the fact that you’ll always be worried about when and what will happen if the company or hiring manager did a background check and found a disconnect in the information you provided.

Withdraw your application
rnWithdrawing your application allows you to exit gracefully. Just thank the employer for the interest in your job application and mention that you are not interested in the position at the time. Although this will automatically lead to not getting the job, at least you don’t have to deal with the consequences of lying.

In fact, withdrawing your application is the best solution to deal with this scenario because if they were to find out later in the interview process, you wouldn’t be considered for the job, anyway. Again, you could lose your job in the future if the company found out you were dishonest in your application.

Fix your resume
rnAfter all is said and done, ensure you fix your cover letter. Perhaps you lied about your employment gaps or included a job or two to increase your skills base or whatever little lie you told to make your resume more impressive. Fix it! Instead, opt to explain the gaps in your cover letter. This way you’ll proactively address them and not have to worry about the consequences of lying. Once, you’ve got all the facts in order, tweak your resume to make it look better or want to be read.

Lying during the hiring process is a risky business, just do the right thing and tell the truth.