Thursday, May 7, 2009
As the semester comes to an end, many of us will be applying at various venues in search of some income, experience, or maybe course credit. But whether you’re a graduating student searching for your first “real job,” just looking to make some summer cash, or trying to learn more in your field via an internship, odds are you’ll have to submit a resume. But what if yours isn’t that impressive? Is it worth it to fib a little or outright lie to get the spot?
The benefits of adding a few “extras” to the document employers use to judge you are pretty obvious. If it appears you’re more qualified, you’re more likely to be chosen.
But the obvious issue with lying on your resume is being caught. This can happen in one of two ways: either at the interview itself, or later after being hired. Lied and said you know German but can’t respond when your employer begins speaking like someone from Deutschland? Exaggerated your electronic skills and crashed the company’s computer? You just lost your job, not to mention thoroughly embarrassed yourself.
Love him or hate him, Donald Trump is definitely a business expert. Trump wrote on his Web site for Trump University that employers are often doing background checks before interviewing potential employees. According to Trump, if “you don’t think twice about lying on a job application, chances are you cheated in school and maybe you cheat in your day-to-day business dealings.” Yikes, probably not the impression you were hoping to make.
Alicia C. Shepard of The Huffington Post wrote that many successful individuals have recently lost their jobs because lies on their resumes were exposed. A few examples include the former dean of admissions at MIT and the chairman and chief executive of Radio Shack Corp.
But in case the idea of being fired from a top-tier position after many years isn’t scary enough, imagine winning one of the most prestigious awards in the world and then being forced to return it because you’re a liar. That’s exactly what happened to Janet Cooke of The Washington Post, who won a Pulitzer Prize for her a story on an 8-year-old heroin addict but had to return the award after a standard resume check showed that Cooke had not only lied about her master’s degree, but had actually only attended college for one year. Oh, not to mention that 8-year-old heroin addict she wrote about turned out to be fictional. See, people? If you lie on a resume, there’s good reason to believe you’d lie about other stuff, too.
The point I’m making here is that lying on your resume is not worth it. No matter how much you want that job or internship, think of the devastating damage you could be doing to yourself. I’ll leave you with some final (and good) advice from Mr. Trump: “Figure out a way to tell the truth and still make yourself look good. If you can’t do that, maybe you ought to consider another line of work.”
— Buser is a Columbia, Ill., junior in journalism and English.
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Buser: Keep your resume clear of "truthiness"
Hey May, you reading this?
Buser: Keep your resume clear of "truthiness"
you have to be impressed, though, that someone with one year of college can write for the post and win a Pulitzer prize, fictional or not.
Buser: Keep your resume clear of "truthiness"
"Love him or hate him, Donald Trump is definitely a business expert."
That is perhaps the most insightful line ever written in the course of Western civilization. It is also a line that sounds exactly like Larry King's "News & Views": "Sudden thought gang, while vertical blinds are terrific, so are horizontal blinds!"
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