Jobs and resumes: When is it appropriate to exaggerate?

A candidate is interviewed at a job interview. Image: Alan Cleaver via Wikipedia (CC BY 2.0)

Be careful next time you go for a job interview – just in case the information on your resume (curriculum vitae) is not the most accurate retelling of your career or education to date. It is also important to avoid superlatives and the use of tired cliches if you want your job application to standout.

Recently, career experts (at Resume.io) have revealed the most common lies found on resumes and the legal consequences behind them. This reveals that 1 in 5 of the UK population admit to lying on their CV. When comparing this percentage to the working population, 6.99 million people have made exaggerated claims.

According to the UK Crime Prosecution Service, Fraud Act 2006 dictates that “making a false representation for personal gain or to cause loss to another can constitute fraud.”

Six common lies found on CVs

Contributions and achievements

While many hiring managers may overlook a white lie or two, a well-written CV will clearly include examples of your individual contribution to a project.

Improving grades and qualifications

With many employees feeling they’ve been passed over for interviews because they are not qualified enough, it’s no wonder that some feel a pressure to exaggerate their education details. However, claiming a qualification at a place you’ve never studied, or falsifying grades in order to secure a job – is a sure-fire way to get fired or even prosecuted.

Employment dates to cover gaps in employment

“Tweaking” your employment dates to cover gaps in your CV isn’t just dishonest — it’s also easy for hiring managers to find out about. It takes just a couple of calls from the hiring manager to your previous employers, and what you thought was an innocent exaggeration has passed over into the realm of creating distrust with your new potential employer.

While employment gaps are not ideal and often easy to explain in an interview, a short note on your CV or cover letter can explain the issue.

Exaggerating job titles

For better or for worse, the job title that you were hired to do is pretty fixed. While you may not be able to change it, you can reframe the responsibilities that you did in the job. Use the bullet points in your employment history section to describe your responsibilities and curate examples of impressive results you achieved while you were in the role.

Team size

A common exaggeration found on CVs is exaggerating the size of the team they managed. Remember that it can be just as impressive to achieve top results with a small team as it can be with a big one. In fact, when working in small teams you are unlikely to have as much infrastructural support as larger teams in larger companies. Find creative ways to highlight this. Consider the examples you choose to include and the language you use to describe it.