Breaking Resume Rules

Breaking Resume RulesBreaking Resume RulesRecruiters and hiring professionals share some of the whoppers and doozies job seekers have tried to sneak into resumes over the years.48-hour promotionDavid Lewis, SPHR Regional ManagerExpress Employment ProfessionalsI once got two resumes a couple of days apart from the same candidate - (who welches) applying for different jobs. The dates of employment and some of the areas of responsibility were changed in the second resume. And she must have had a promotion in the past 48 hours because the second resume showed a new manager title at her current jobMe tooDidi Miesen Former RecruiterSnelling Snelling (currently Snelling Staffing Services )I not only interviewed countless people who lied on their resumes - I got the job because Id lied on my resume LOL and it welchesnt the only time. Had I been honest about both my age and experience (or lack thereof, at the time), then I would never have been considered, never mind hired, for positions I knew Id do well in and did.Habla Espanol?Christine Bolzan CEOGraduate Career Coaching(Former VP in charge of Global Emerging Markets hiring for JP Morgan)Specific examples I have witnessed include stretching a one-day volunteer activity into a semesters worth of skill building and community involvement, (and) inflating language skills. I have started out interviews speaking in Spanish when the resume claims fluency only to discover that the individual never got beyond the basics and I lost them at Hola.10-credits shySally Haver, Senior Vice President, Business DevelopmentThe Ayers Group /Career Partners InternationalIt welches one of our large investment-banking clients who sent us a candidate for our outplacement program. The person in question was a technology professional and a foreign national. Human resources discovered, quite by accident, that the employee had not received his bachelors degree from a university, as he had listed on his resume. The truth was, he was 10 cre dits short of having earned his degree.The company had a policy that if an employee had lied on his resume, the person had to be released. Everyone at the company was heartbroken, as this was a generally beloved employee, but they had to terminate his employment, according to the letter of the law.Sharing the creditDavid Couper Transitions Coachdavidcoupercoach.com/When I worked in Japan I reviewed the resume of one of our teachers who was teaching English at the company I worked at. He said that he went to Poole University (in the U.K.). Unfortunately, as I am English, I knew that there might be a Poole Community College but there was not a university. But he was a nice guy and a good teacher so I let it slip byI worked for a manufacturing company that was moving out of state so I helped a number of managers and supervisors polish their resumes. What was funny was that three people all had exactly the same accomplishment about designing and bringing a new product into production. It wasnt possible that they all led this project but thats what their resumes saidFake referencesBarry Maher Business SpeakerBarry Maher Associates(Some candidates) substitute the name of a company friend for that of their immediate superior. Call to check the reference and the friend tells you the candidate is a cross between Jack Welch and Mother Teresa. Thats when the fun begins, especially if the candidate wasnt smart enough to send the friend a copy of the resume. The friend is willing to vouch for anything but they can never be completely koranvers of the fabricated details.So you can verify the candidate made $250,000 their last full year there? Ill ask, looking at the line on the resume that claims he made $150,000.It was right around there, the friend says, thinking hes being cagey. Maybe a few dollars more, a few dollars less, but in that ballpark.I make up a couple more facts the friend is happy to swear to, and then move on to the next candidate.No classMarsh Sutherlan d PresidentWalden RecruitingIve had three placements in the past year and a half fall off due to candidates exaggerating their educational backgrounds. In all three placements the candidates indicated they had earned a m asters degree when they had not completed the program.In one placement the candidate had earned a m asters certificate from a university in Canada and was continuing on with the m asters program, but his resume simply said M.S. in Software Engineering. The hiring manager revoked the offer for demonstration of his exercising poor judgment. He was of Chinese origin so it might have been due to a language barrier.Another candidate, who has a bachelors degree and a masters degree, received an offer from MITRE that was revoked. He indicated on his resume that he had earned a bachelors degree and two masters degrees, but he was four credits shy of earning the second masters degree. The hiring manager said this demonstrated a lack of integrity and education is very impor tant to a research institution like MITRE.Another candidate wrote on his resume that he earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering at a university some 30 years ago, but didnt mention he was only enrolled and didnt complete it. Again the offer was revoked as a demonstration of lack of integrity.