Ethics and Resumes

Posted by Paym Bergson Jun 20, 2006

What is it about society that sometimes makes us feel guilty about "blowing our own horn" or praising ourselves to others, yet seems to challenge us to embellish a Resume to the point of fraud? Not something you or I would do, eh?

Really. How many times have you, in the past month, embellished your "reason" for not being at work - 24 hour stomach flu (hung over); too sick to come in (need that extra day on the weekend for this week); yada yada yada.

Yes, we are all guilty at some point in our lives of "embellishing" the truth - and yes, even on our Resumes. How often do you really go over your Resume to ensure it is accurate and up to date? Did you really work there that long? Were you really the "head lead"? I always go over very carefully with students and clients what their jobs and responsibilities really were at their places of employment. More often than not, though, they were not trying to lie, they just did not realize what they really DID do at their work. These people had heard they should try to "spice up" their Resume - and did not realize that just meant changing the tone and/or wordage. Using action verbs gives a nice "action" feeling to a Resume.

As well, you need to expand (not embellish) on what your work entailed. I use the cashier example in my article - as different cashiers do different things - your prospective employer may have a preconceived notion of what a cashier does - that may not be what YOU did.

So, expand on your work, but don't embellish. It's not worth a damaged reputation.

Read the article that goes with this blog.