Resumés are tricky documents. While you need to make your skills and experience sound impressive, there’s a fine line between fancy wordplay and misrepresentation.
And it’s a line plenty of us cross, according to a new study by staffing service OfficeTeam: Of the more than 1,000 managers surveyed, 36 per cent report that job applicants “somewhat often” include inaccurate information on their resumés.
While many candidates attempt to stretch the duration of a past job or misrepresent their levels of education, some of the other common inaccuracies aren’t intentionally deceitful, says Daryl Pigat, OfficeTeam’s Wall Street market manager.
“A lot of times with software, they’ll think, ‘I’ve worked in Photoshop a million years ago, so I can put that on.’ But it fact, they’re useless,” he says. “It’s easy to sit in your room, type up a document and send it out with this mis-truth on there. But in person, it’s a lot harder to defend.”
Managers who see a lot of resumés can easily spot a suspicious entry, so it’s likely you’ll never have the chance to explain your Photoshop bluff in person. But if you do, it’s best to admit your shortcomings.
