Have a 'truthful' resume

Many applicants lie about their accomplishments and professional skills in their resume like stretching dates of past employment to exaggerating professional and educational qualifications. The advice is - just tell the truth.

Stretching dates of past employment to exaggerating about professional and educational qualifications are some of the common lies resorted to by job seekers to make themselves appear attractive to the employer. What these individuals do not realise, however, is that by misrepresenting facts, they run the risk of damaging their careers.

Some common lies include:

Stretching dates to cover employment gaps. Employment dates are often fudged to hide gaps in employment or a period of job hopping.

Enhancing job titles and embellishing past achievements. Many prospective employees lie about previous job responsibilities. They exaggerate past accomplishments and professional skills. They claim bogus degrees, computer skills and language fluency to inflate their resumes. Some even claim to having been paid a higher salary at a previous job in a bid to get more money.

Inventing employers and fabricating reasons for leaving the previous job.

Providing fraudulent references. Many applicants submit incorrect information relating to their references and think that the potential employer would be too busy to verify them. Many think they can get away with these white lies and the company will not perform any background checks. On the contrary, many companies today take background checks very seriously.

A white lie can follow you places and if discovered, it can destroy your career. If you lie in your resume, the prospective employer will presume you will also fib at the workplace. So, just do not do it. The next time you go job hunting, always remember to tell the truth. If you do not, better be armed to back up those claims.