Can you handle the truth?

by Hernan | May 23, 2018 | Acing Your Interview

Do you want the best possible chance of getting “the job”? Let’s start with a truthful resume. And in particular, let’s start with your Education.

Past candidates have lost out on interviews and even job offers after it was discovered that they falsified their Education on their resumes. All candidates eventually go through a background check process, and that is the ‘great equalizer’ no matter how prestigious you want your Education to look on your resume. Please, for your own sake, follow this simple rule: If you did not earn it and complete it, do not list it. And if you earned/completed some of it, specifically say so. For example, if you attended but did not earn the degree, list the institution and say “courses taken, degree not obtained”. This way it is clear up front to the employer/recruiter, and you will not be faulted later on for listing a degree you did not obtain. Because believe us, you will be faulted for lying. The truth always comes out.

This article from Monster.com explains a little more in depth the risk and consequences of lying on your resume.

https://www.monster.com/career-advice/article/the-truth-about-resume-lies-hot-jobs

The Biggest Resume Lies to Avoid

Lying on your resume? You are bound to get caught. Don’t fudge facts—instead, this is how you make the truth sound better.

Finding a job is challenging enough, but when your competition is beefing up their resumes with flat-out lies, it can make standing out even tougher. Almost half of workers (46%) polled by staffing firm OfficeTeam, a Robert Half company, said they know someone who included false information on a resume. Maybe you’ve even done it!

“It’s an epidemic,” says Scott Samuels, CEO of Horizon Hospitality, an executive search firm. “More and more people feel like they can get away with lying because they think no one is going to check and verify. It’s rampant.”

Newsflash: Companies will check your credentials, and yet, the resume lies are likely to continue. Why? “I think fear is the main reason,” says Kim Isaacs, Monster’s resume expert. “Fear of not being good enough, fear of not measuring up to their peers, fear of not getting called for interviews. Some people will do whatever it takes to get an edge.”

More likely than not, if you lie on your resume, you’ll find yourself skating along that edge. Whether you’re telling a little white lie or a blatant fabrication, getting caught could amount to career sabotage—especially since today’s technology and social media environments make it easier to get caught.

 3 of the most common lies job seekers tell

1. Education embellishments. Samuels has found that people try to make more of a course or two they took than they should. “We’ve had someone put down Cornell School of Hotel Management on their resume, when they only took one class online,” he says. “[The candidate] didn’t graduate from there or even attend in person.”

Better bet: Instead of fudging your academic credentials, think about what you can add to your resume to demonstrate your education. Other professional development, honors or awards, and extra coursework might be relevant, says Isaacs.

2. Date deception. Another common deceit is to cover up employment gaps by “stretching dates for one or two jobs to cover a time gap, or fabricating an interim job,” says Isaacs.

Better bet: It’s sometimes a good strategy to preemptively squash concerns an employer may have about gaps on your resume, says Isaacs. If you took time off to raise a family, care for a loved one, go back to school, or take on an independent project, explain your circumstances in your cover letter and be sure to stress how committed you are to finding a job you can grow with.

3. Skill stretching. Many job candidates offer up a laundry list of technical proficiencies, but just because you used a program a few times doesn’t make you an expert. The same goes if you claim to be fluent in a language just because you took a year of it in high school.

Better bet: Only list skills that you are truly prepared to demonstrate on the spot.

How you can get caught lying on your resume

If you think you can pull one over on potential employers, think again. It’s probably true that many job seekers do get away with a slight exaggeration here, an omission there, but eventually, misrepresentations can come back to bite you.

“Hiring managers have their antennae up when reviewing resumes,” says Isaacs, “and they’re relying on background checks, reference checks, online research, social media sleuthing, and in-person interviews to determine the truth.”

Here are a few ways that lies on your resume will get you red-flagged as a fibber:

Skills assessments. Especially if you’re applying for a skilled position that involves writing, coding, or designing, expect that an employer will test you before hiring you. “Assessments can validate that you have the experience, as can asking appropriate behavioral questions during the interview,” Samuels says.

Social media research. If you have a social media profile and a website, you’d better make sure that dates and basic facts match up to the resume you submit. “Because we’ve been in business for 20 years, says Samuels, “a lot of times we’ll even have prior resumes for a candidate on file that are completely different.”

And, of course, there’s Google, so if there is some version of your resume or work history online, make sure it’s in sync with what you hand a prospective employer.

Background checks. It’s very easy for a hiring manager to contact your former employers and educational institutions to verify what’s on your resume. And even if employers somehow miss false or misleading information before an applicant is hired, the job seeker isn’t really ever off the hook. “The resume liar is always in danger of getting caught,” says Isaacs, “and this could happen many years into their tenure.” For instance, say your company goes through a merger and you have to go through a vetting process again—those lies can end up haunting you.

3 easy ways to avoid lying on your resume

Stay honest. It sounds cliché, but honesty really is the best policy, says Isaacs. Instead of using evasion or a complete distortion of facts, try the following strategies:

Rethink your design.  “A common way to format dates on your resume is to right justify or left justify them so they’re set apart from text,” says Isaacs. But “lone dates surrounded by a river of white space draws the eye—so it’s not a good choice for someone trying to downplay frequent job changes.”

Instead, place the dates next to job titles or employer names so they blend in with the other content, she suggests.

Get in front of a potential issue. You might be tempted to leave off a job in which your departure didn’t go well, but omissions are like lies and can be just as harmful. “Sometimes bad things happen. If you’re honest and upfront, you can overcome that,” says Samuels.

Laws ban ‘What’s your salary?’ question in interviews

by Hernan | May 1, 2017 | Acing Your Interview

Source: Laws ban ‘What’s your salary?’ question in interviews

It’s that job interview question you’d love to dodge: What’s your current, or most recent, salary?

A low figure could limit your starting pay. A high number might make you seem expensive.

Now, several states and cities are banning the question as part of efforts to ensure pay equity for women, but some companies say the new laws represent yet another intrusion into their businesses.

This week, the city of Philadelphia said it will hold off on enforcing the legislation until a federal judge rules on a petition to block it from the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia. A federal court already had temporarily stayed the law, which was to take effect May 23.  And Connecticut recently dropped the “salary history” prohibition from its bill to ensure gender pay equity.

Philadelphia joins New York City and Massachusetts, where legislation was passed this month and last year, respectively, in barring employers from asking job candidates about their salary history or benefits. The laws are scheduled to take effect in New York later this year and in Massachusetts in July 2018.

At least eight other states are considering similar measures — Illinois, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont, according to law firm Fisher & Phillips. The bills are aimed at closing a long-standing gender-based pay gap that, according to the Census Bureau, has women earning about 80 cents for every dollar earned by men.  (Studies that compare men and women in similar occupations and control for other factors, such as experience, find much narrower pay disparities.) By basing future salaries on previous wages, employers can perpetuate the earnings divide, advocates for women say.

“We know that when employers see some past salary, they’re likely to take that into account” in setting the employee’s starting pay, says Emily Martin, general counsel for the National Women’s Law Center. As a result, “Too often, when women are paid less than men, that pay disparity can follow them from job to job.”  In fact, she says, the gender pay gap widens as women age, supporting the theory that employers are relying too heavily on previous salaries.

The salary history bans generally are part of, or addenda to, broader laws that prevent employers from underpaying women. The legislation in Massachusetts and some other areas also prohibit employers from instructing employees not to discuss their wages. Such conversation is often needed so a female worker can file a challenge. Generally, the laws allow firms to rely on salary information if the job candidate volunteers it.

More broadly, compensation experts say the measures also address the fundamental unfairness of shackling a new employee to a prior salary. “Our advice to organizations is that they should price the position, not price the person,” says Lydia Frank, vice president of PayScale, a compensation data and software firm. “You’re  trying to fill a certain role. What you should be doing is understanding the market rate for that role.”

But Cheryl Behymer, a labor lawyer for Fisher & Phillips who represents employers, says many companies use salary history to set pay and manage their costs. “It’s hard to figure out how to pay somebody a fair amount,” she says. “You’re looking at getting the best employee you can but … there’s nothing wrong with trying to save the company money.”

The prohibition against asking candidates for their prior salaries follows the passage of “ban the box” laws in nearly half the states barring employers from requiring job seekers to acknowledge on applications if they have a criminal record.

“Here’s another point where the government is dictating to an employer how to conduct its business and employers resent that,” Behymer says of the new salary history laws.

While both the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia and Comcast, which is headquartered in the city, oppose the new law, neither would comment. But in a statement in January, chamber President Rob Wonderling said, “Tragically we are finding that when global enterprises are looking to locate their business in America, Philadelphia is quickly falling off the list.”

He said various new restraints are “having a negative impact on job growth.” The chamber also argues the salary-history law violates companies’ free speech rights, and there’s no evidence it promotes wage equity

At a city hearing, Wonderling said a prior salary provided an employer “a better understanding of whether a candidate is worth pursuing based on previous compensation levels as well as the market value or salaries for comparable positions.”

Michael Aitken, vice president of government affairs for the Society for Human Resource Management, says a current or previous salary can indicate whether a job candidate’s current high pay is above the employer’s range, avoiding wasted time and resources. But he says firms can address that issue by including a salary range in a job posting or telling a job candidate early on.

And while a salary history provides some companies a better understanding of pay for comparable positions, Aitken says many firms conduct their own market surveys anyway. Still, for small businesses that can’t afford such surveys, the new laws pose a more formidable hurdle, he says.

Aitken acknowledges some employers use a previous salary as a baseline to determine future pay, but he says that’s typically within the salary range it already has established for the position. Businesses that underpay employees are at risk of losing them to competitors, he says.

Meanwhile, as long as the salary history question is still fair game,job candidates inclined to distort their pay should beware —  current or former employers aren’t required to reveal your former salary if asked by a recruiter, though they can if they wish.

SpenDifference, which provides procurement and other services to restaurant chains, asked job candidates for their salary history to help set starting pay until it brought on PayScale as a consultant a year ago, says Carla Williams, vice president of human resources. Now, it has access to a rich trove of market data.

“Getting an employee at a bargain (didn’t) feel great for us,” she says, adding pay disparities between similar workers can hurt morale, prod employees to leave and open the company to charges of gender discrimination.

Now, Williams says the company annually provides its 40 employees market-based salaries for jobs similar to their own to increase transparency, noting many mistakenly believe they’re underpaid. “It’s not that elephant in the room” anymore, she says.