Ever just fake a resume? (application, references, employers, jobs)
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A person can "doctor up" their resume or not, depends on the person. My wife was told by an Employment Agency manager to "enhance" the experience part of her resume for a job she was applying for. As long as a person either definitely knows or has the actual experience, I wouldn't recomment "enhancing" the experience parts! But, then again, a person doesn't have to "doctor up" their resume at all and STILL not get a call for an interview!! Or, the resume is perfect, but once a person's age is found out, it can be "bye, bye" from the company automatically. When people hit their
50's and early 60's, many do get that "bye, bye" after just one interview!
Resumes and age, age and resumes.........definitely topics!
A person can "doctor up" their resume or not, depends on the person. My wife was told by an Employment Agency manager to "enhance" the experience part of her resume for a job she was applying for. As long as a person either definitely knows or has the actual experience, I wouldn't recomment "enhancing" the experience parts! But, then again, a person doesn't have to "doctor up" their resume at all and STILL not get a call for an interview!! Or, the resume is perfect, but once a person's age is found out, it can be "bye, bye" from the company automatically. When people hit their
50's and early 60's, many do get that "bye, bye" after just one interview!
Resumes and age, age and resumes.........definitely topics!
I've had my own company (a director) tell me to "add stuff" to my resume because they wanted to bring me into a different department but it still had to get through HR, I did so and got the job offer.
That's a great way NOT to get a job. DH's company will pass on someone for even one little lie...it's not that hard to check, and they do check. Not only through background checks and official channels but once you get known within your industry it's more difficult to pull the wool over eyes. Even if you fudge some stuff and get by with it, it could come up later and bite you.
The Donald agrees:
It's sub-optimal for sure. But if your real resume isn't getting a second look, it's worth considering.
You would be surprised what you can put on a resume and still be telling 100 percent the truth. When I was applying for my current job I bought some highly recommended resume writing software. I spent all day inputing data and creating a resume with it. The resume I ended up with was so generic looking that even I could tell it was a piece of crap. I then went to a good professional resume writer. Inside of a couple hours we put together an awesome resume. Everything in it was 100 percent true and verifiable.
Here is an example:
At my previous job at one point in time I was the cargo warehouse supervisor. One of the duties on my resume showed as "Supervised the build-up and documentation of cargo ensuring on-time delivery for eight international and four domestic airlines." That statement was 100 percent true and verifiable. The fact of the matter is it was a one man warehouse and the only person I supervised was myself. Half of the airlines never once shipped out any cargo. The other half only shipped a couple hundred pounds a month. Most days no cargo came in or out, no one stopped by, and the phone did not ring.
Those types of checks are now very, very expensive and are usually only done for a 6 figure person.
Most HR department's try and do a 20th century verification by calling your previous employers, that is if they still exist.
Where are you getting your information from?
I have worked as a recruiter and initiated background checks for even janitorial level workers (state health care agency). We outsourced to external parties to do it and it was pretty cheap based on our headcount... i.e think how cheap it is for YOU to check someone's background by going to places like USSearch, 123NC etc.
My current employer does very in depth background checks for ALL employees and even temps. In fact now that I think about it all of my employers have required background checks and I have received copies in the mail of what was gathered. I have NOT had an employer call another employer in years-- they hire agencies who specialize in it.
I received my information from unemployed and former human resources directors.
There are several internet background check companies and their prices can vary greatly. If you only use 1 service how can you verify that the information is correct or is up to date?
A good human resources professional would do more than 1 background check and that costs money.
Plus, you would do this for all face to face candidates. Why would you interview someone who does not satisfy the minimum of background checks?
You would do at least a second background check right before you make the offer. This would verify that both background checks are equal.
What kind of information does a background check bring up? Can they tell if you were fired, laid off, or quit from previous jobs? I'm just wondering because I quit a job a while ago because they had me doing a job that I wasn't hired for. Technically, in the corporate world, I was probably terminated. Would a company know from a background check?
I received my information from unemployed and former human resources directors.
There are several internet background check companies and their prices can vary greatly. If you only use 1 service how can you verify that the information is correct or is up to date?
A good human resources professional would do more than 1 background check and that costs money.
Plus, you would do this for all face to face candidates. Why would you interview someone who does not satisfy the minimum of background checks?
You would do at least a second background check right before you make the offer. This would verify that both background checks are equal.
Well-- from my experience we did the following:
Background check: (verification of employment history on the job application. This was done either through a third party-- who would contact each former employer, each school, each certification agency, etc. Many larger companies now use the work number so that stuff is pretty easy to verify. Costs would increase if additional information was required such as salary history, etc). When these were returned, info usually was returned with salary rate, time of position, actual title(s), and eligibility for rehire. FYI things like the Work Number are usually updated with a data feed from the HR database system at your employer to a data feed into the Work Number-- pretty much it is not some minimum wage employee actually calling up the previous company. It is self reported data.
Criminal Check: Depending on the employer, criminal checks would be done for just the state, region, or nation. My current company does for the entire nation.
Drug Test: Goes without saying what this means
FBI Fingerprint Background Check: Current employer does this-- fingerprints are taken for each finger and hand and the entire hand, etc
Executive level background checks: (a far more in depth process)
Credit checks: Current employer does this based on bonding requirements
Mid-employment background checks: All of the above are checked again for my current employer during the course of your employment. I have known people who have been let go who racked on criminal charges that they kept hidden as well as poor credit issues.
Since it is not exactly free, every company I have worked for or initiated a background check for only does it for those in serious contention for the job. As a recruiter, I have had people who fudged dates and who were taken out of consideration. At my current employer, I have known applicants also who fudged degrees or certifications who were also let go or were notified the reason why they were no longer being considered for a job (happened to a friend of mine who applied at the same time as I did during a massive hiring and who fudged a bachelor's versus just saying that she had attended college for 3.5 years, etc).
I pulled my own the work number profile before--- and saw what my current employer was going to see for my last employer. It included salary history and if I were eligible for rehire, title, position, and tenure.
Can they tell if you have been fired? More than likely they can deduce that if when they ask, "Is this person eligible to be rehired?" and the other company says "No."
Why is it worth it to lie only to be fired later on when a lie (or imcompetence) shows up or never even make it to the next level in the job process? Sure you can glamorize what you did or have a skilled resume writer rephrase things to make it sound better, but technology is pretty complete and for these background check companies it is not a huge call center of folks who are making outbound calls all day long to previous employers. In some cases they do (if data did not check out and then they would go back to the hiring company and try to get additional information to call back on, etc)-- as an aside this happened to me at my current employer a former employer of mine who had gone out of business and left no records-- I was asked to provide W2s or a former supervisor's name which I was able to do so that they could contact the former manager.
You know, a little tweek here, a little add-on there...
Anybody here have any ideas or help on what you can get away with? You know, stuff that looks great on a resume and that's not easily checked. I know more than a few here have done/or have thought about doing that.
Sound off.
Don't even do it. When we called in 5 applicants(for an interview) for an Accounting job they all said they knew how to use a particular program that we required extensive experience with. They were all was busted because neither knew anything about the program or knew how to get around in it. Now we ask these questions over the phone!
We did this on the 1st interview to see who was lying and who wasn't. We had hired a person that claimed this, answered questions right only to find out that she "googled" it LMAO!. Believe me she was gone pretty quick after that. We didn't want to train anyone on a program that they claimed they knew backwards and forwards. Another words, she lied on her resume and what else could she be lying about.
Companies are getting smart and you will be found out depending on the position your applying for. Accounting, that was just plain stupid. You might get away with it in Customer Service or as an Exec Admin, but not for Management positions. And fancy words don't work either, get a professional to help you re-work your resume.
I had my resume re-done by a company (while still employed) and would like to share what they told me after I submitted my original to them.
What your resume has to do
Your resume must communicate what makes you uniquely qualified to help your target employers – and it needs to do it in a way that quickly grabs the attention of busy readers (and gets found in automated computer systems).
Notice that I said ‘uniquely’ qualified. You have a blend of skills, experiences and personality traits that make you different from every other professional applying for the same position. Your resume must convey what makes you uniquely you, and must quickly communicate this message in a way that busy executives/recruiters can easily digest.
In short: Your resume must tell a unique and compelling story rather than simply recite facts.
Now onto the specifics about your resume ...
Each client is unique and much of our work together will focus on identifying exactly what makes you different from everyone else, and how we can tell your story to best effect. That means it’s impossible to tell you exactly how your resume will ultimately be structured, or what our focus will be. But I can give you an overview of what will be different from your current document.
Your Introduction
== I like the fact that you started your resume with an introduction that provides an overview of your experience, but I would like to see a much stronger sales message here. We’ll start with a powerful summary to provide a strong introduction to your story. This profile will emphasize your strongest selling points and will do so quickly and clearly. It will help those busy managers and recruiters by telling them all they need to know within the all-important first 20 seconds. The summary will also capture your work style and personality so that the reader can ‘feel’ your presence and has a sense of the impact you will make in person. At the moment, I feel this is a little lacking. This is a key element of what makes our resume writing approach so successful and it can’t be emphasized enough – we want to show employers who you are, not just what you’ve done.
Your Job Descriptions
== I like that you have provided a job description for each of your roles, but I’d like to make more of this space on the resume by setting the scene for readers. Don’t just tell them about your day-to-day tasks – use this opportunity to describe the situation. If we work on your resume, we’ll use this section to explain the specific challenge, circumstance, or situation that existed when you took each position - this is a key factor in differentiating you from other candidates because it will help readers understand your subsequent accomplishments. For example, what was the situation when you joined Valley Heating? What challenges did you face? What problems or opportunities existed?
Once readers know this, they can picture the situation – it becomes real to them, and therefore you stop being just another candidate on a piece of paper and become a real human being.
Your Accomplishments
== A key element of your story is 'evidence' that you will add value. This is where you take readers through your story, from the original situation when you were hired to the specific impact you made. You do this by describing specific achievements and showing how your employer benefited.
You have told the reader about your responsibilities, but very little about your achievements. A ‘responsibility’ is something you were tasked with and expected to do – an achievement describes the impact you have made. For example you say:
Planned, coordinated luncheons and maintained ordering of all office supplies.
Organize the details of special events; travel arrangements, corporate agendas and itineraries.
These only tell the reader what you were supposed to do – it doesn’t tell them what you did do. Achievements are a powerful way to show your unique ability to make a difference. There's a famous saying attributed to a recruiter at Microsoft, who said: "I don't only want to know what you achieved, I want to know how much glass you had to crawl through to get there." Your goal is to show that you made an impact and to explain how you did it and what challenges you faced. If readers believe that you will make their lives easier, grow revenue, increase profits or improve productivity, they will want to meet you. If you don’t hire us to create a new resume for you, I recommend going back through every bullet point on your resume and rewriting anything that doesn't quickly and clearly highlight your ability to make an impact.
Your Skills
== Most of my suggestions so far have focused on impressing readers by telling your story in a compelling way. But when we write resumes for our clients, we also focus on the automated resume screening systems used by many employers. These systems look for keywords throughout your resume in order to filter you in or out. Our process has been designed to capture as many of these keywords as possible, and we then include them throughout your resume.
I've interviewed too many people who had their resume fudged. Some of their problems, not knowing the lingo, job description and such. I can't believe people would have words or key terminology listed, but weren't able to answer questions when I picked out something and asked them to describe. Your resume may make it into the door, however upon a brief phone interview, face-to-face, or through the investigation check you will be caught. Too many people lose jobs by falsfying information either on resume and application.
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