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How Much Should You Lie On Your Resume?

Think about this. If you apply for a job paying $25,000 per year, and say you stay there for ten years, that’s a quarter of a million dollars you will earn in that time. If your present salary is say $18,000, the difference in earnings over ten years between the two jobs is $70,000. You could say this is the reward for lying.

So how much should you lie. Lets be clear right away. You should only be applying for jobs for which you have a lot of relevant experience. You should NEVER try to con your way into a situation where you will put yourself and others in danger.

If you can’t drive, applying for a job as a bus driver is not just stupid, it is dangerous and if you do it you should be jailed, for a long time!

Getting employment as a doctor when you don’t know your aspirin from your elbow is criminal.

When we talk about lying on resumes, we are assuming you have the relevant experience to carry out the duties you will be asked to perform. Anyway, unless you area very skilled liar or the interviewer is particularly dim, you will be soon weeded out when you fail to answer basic questions.

Lying on resumes and at interviews is common practice. Interviewers expect it. You can lie about your salary, work experience, qualifications, employment dates, hobbies, marital status, in fact everything which you would normally find on a CV.

Which one of these people are you?

You read the help wanted ad and the job seems perfect for you. You seem perfect for it too. You have got all the qualifications they're asking for. Oh, wait. What does that say? Hmmm. They want someone who has experience with that. “Well, I can do that,” you think to yourself. “I just haven't done it before. But, I'm sure I can learn.”

Most of us have had thoughts like this float through our minds. However, each of us may choose a different course of action. Let's take a few examples:

Job Searcher A says: “Oh well. I guess I don't qualify for this job.” He or she moves onto the next help wanted ad.

Job Searcher B says: “O.K., so I don't have the experience they're asking for. I can just make something up. After all the last company I worked for isn't in business anymore. This new one will never find out what I did or didn't do there." Job Searcher #2 is just a few keystrokes away from adding fictional responsibilities to his or her resume.

Job Searcher C says: “It's obvious I don't have the experience they want but I do know I can easily pick up the skills I need to do the job. The only thing I can do is take a chance and apply for the job anyway. I'll use my cover letter to explain that I don't have the required skills but I am willing to do whatever is necessary to acquire them. I'll explain that I do have related skills. What have I got to lose anyway?”

What if you get caught? We’ll address the issue later in this guide. For now, let's focus on the key ways of getting your resume prepared for battle.

You have 30 Seconds to Grab Their Attention!

Resumes are all about presentation. Some hiring manager is going to scan your resume and make a determination in about 30 seconds or less, whether or not you're qualified. After all, if you don't get to the interview, you can't possibly land the job, right?

Were you ever beaten out of a job because a competitor padded his résumé? Let’s go to the stats: In a poll of 150 hiring executives at large companies, the execs estimated that nearly 30 percent of all job candidates fudge on their résumés. It’s actually worse than that, says Patricia Gillette, a San Francisco lawyer who has investigated hundreds of résumés while defending companies against former employees. "Probably 90 percent of the time, people lie on their résumé," she says. “We figure that means 60 percent of the job force lies and gets away with it.”