Fake Resume Guide

http://www.fakeresume.com
The Fake Resume Guide can help you get the great high paying job you want by helping you lie on
your great resume. Everyone else is doing it, shouldn't you
!rologue
"ntroduction
#$ %hy &ake your resume
'$ (ow wide spread is &raud and lying on resumes
)$ (ow an employer sees your resume
*$ '+ things that will raise red &lags and trigger ,uestions
-$ (ow much should you lie on your resume
+$ Fine tuning your resume
.$ "ncreasing the level o& your e/perience
0$ Faking your college education
1$ 2urviving the employee background check
#3$ 4reating air tight re&erences
##$ 5ying at the interview and getting away with it
#'$ %hat i& you get caught
6ppendices
6. Resume basics
7. Finding jobs
4. 4over letter basics
8. "nterview basics
E. Resources
Prologue
6re you tired o& applying &or jobs and never getting a response 6re you &rustrated because employers
won't contact you &or interviews 8o you &eel overwhelmed about your job search 6re you tired o&
wasting hours signing up with online job boards with nothing to show &or your e&&orts or money
Guess what....9ver -): o& job seekers lie on their resumes. 9ver .3: o& college graduates admit to
lying on their resumes to get hired. 4an you a&&ord not to know the techni,ues, tricks and methods
they use
4hances are you're sick and tired o& the job hunt and not getting call backs &or interviews. ;ou <=9%
you can do all the things listed &or the jobs that you apply &or but &or whatever reason you get ignored.
There>s something on your resume that>s missing or that immediately gets your resume tossed in the
trash. 6s an e/ecutive recruiter &or years, ">ve read literally thousands o& resumes and learned what
things hiring companies look &or in resumes and ?9RE importantly what things will get you e/cluded@
8o you know what glaring weaknesses e/ist in your resume that you could bee& up
;ou may be saying to yoursel&, that that adding things to your resume is wrong and unethical. =ow in
this post Enron, post %orld 4om era it sure doesn>t seem like corporate 6merica is too concerned with
ethics. Every week yet another corporate scandal erupts on the &ront page o& the news. !eople>s
retirement plans are wiped out a&ter having worked almost '3 years. Aust recently " read how one large
6irline renegotiated the pension plans o& their &light attendants. %hen the dust settled someone who
was told they were going to get B#,033 per month was told that they>d now be getting less then B133.
The e/ecutives that were interviewed didn>t seem too concerned about the lack o& ethics they displayed
in cutting out the guts o& the retirement o& loyal employees that worked thousands o& hours based upon
a promise made to them.
(ow about all the people that work overtime C=!6"8 and then get laid o&& right be&ore the
(olidays@@ !erhaps you're one o& those people that have worked more hours then you needed to and
have handled more job responsibilties then what you were originally hired &or (ow many wedding
anniversaries have you missed, how many 5ittle 5eague games have you missed, how many birthdays
did you miss because you were being a loyal ethical employee putting in the e/tra time to help the
company. Then you were laid o&& or passed over &or the big promotion you were e/pecting.
(ow ethical is it &or companies to e/pect you to work like a slave and then treat you like dirt !erhaps
your loyalty should be to yoursel&, your &amily and your &riends that look out &or you and take care o&
you. Gone are the days when you could put in your time and count on having job security. The '#st
century is all about cost cutting, outsourcing and ,uarterly pro&its.
2orry but you and " don>t &it into the e,uation other than as a method to s,ueeDe out even more work
out o& us like a juicer s,ueeDes every last bit o& juice out o& an 9range. (ave you ever seen what an
9range looks like a&ter it>s been put through a high powered pro&essional juicer 5et me tell you, it>s
=9T pretty@
%hat toll is your current job taking on your health 8o you realiDe the toll on your health that staying
in your job is taking on you 4onsider these &actsE
F G'-: o& employees view their jobs as the number one stressor in their lives.G
H=orthwestern =ational 5i&e$
F G.-: o& employees believe the worker has more onItheIjob stress than a generation ago.G
H!rinceton 2urvey Research 6ssociates$
F G!roblems at work are more strongly associated with health complaints than are any other li&e
stress &actorIImore so than even &inancial problems or &amily problems.G
H2t. !aul Fire and ?arine "nsurance 4o.$
F Researchers have identi&ied something called the 7lack ?onday !henomenon. ?ore &atal heart
attacks occur on ?onday morning at around 1E33 a.m. than at any other time o& the week. =o other
living creature dies on one day more than another, but we humans seem unhappy enough with our work
that it literally breaks our heart. Research shows that sudden death occurs at the beginning o& the work
week not only because o& the e/tra physical e/ertion that comes &rom the stress o& transitioning &rom
the weekend couch to the ?onday rush hour but because o& the emotional distress o& returning to a job
that brings and gives too little happiness.
(iring ?anagers Think ;ou're 5ying 6nyway@ The majority o& human resources managers assume that
EJER;9=E embellishes, e/aggerates, pu&&s up and basically lies to some e/tent on your resume. 2o
i& you're being totally honest you're being penaliDed because they're going to assume that you
embellished your resume to a certain e/tent@
;our resume might not get you the job but it can certainly lose it &or you. ;ou've Got 5ess Then #3
seconds To ?ake the 4ut@ From the Forbes.com web siteE G?any job listings generate hundreds o&
resumes, and the initial screen is keyed to selected degrees or job titles. "t's done manually or by
computer, and upIorIdown decisions are o&ten made in a &ew seconds. 4andidates without the needed
key words or titles on their rKsumK land in the reject heap.G Either your resume is a !ERFE4T match
with what the hiring manager is looking &or or you "??E8"6TE5; end up in the trash can@ =9% do
you think adding the R"G(T key words and degree might make a di&&erence to getting the job you
want The other ,uestion to ask yoursel& is i& you do add the magic words, selected degrees or job
titles, do you know how to do it without getting caught
(ere are some o& the secrets you will learn in this power&ul guide@
F (ow to &ill the gaps in your employment history
F Fool proo& methods to add e/perience to your resume
F The best way to get &ake re&erences
F %hy the amount you can lie and get away with is tied to your age
F %hy even i& you don't lie hiring managers will assume that your resume is e/agerated
F The * things (uman Resources departments can 5EG655; ask
F The main reason good liars get job o&&ers and honest people don't@
F (ow to get 4ollege transcripts &rom 6=; Cniversity with any G!6 you want@
F (ow to determine when you should =9T lie@
F Things you must never put in your resume@
F %hy most cover letters get your resume trashed be&ore it ever gets read@
F %hy you should =EJER divulge your salary history to a prospective employer
F %hat to do i& i& the job you're applying &or re,uires your past %I''s
F "nterview mistakes that will kill your chances o& getting the job
F (ow to rig your resume so it gets picked by the new automated (uman Resources systems
F %hy you should never &a/ or mail your resume
F The ) types o& job hunters and which one usually gets the job H"t's not the one that you think$
F %hy you should lie on your resume but =9T on a job application HhintE it's a legal reason$
F %hy you can't a&&ord not to lie on your resume
%hat e/actly is a &ake resume 7asically, a &ake resume is one in which a speci&ic alteration o& your
employment history is made in order to deceive a human resources person or hiring authority in order
to get hired. This means that the &abrication is in the resume itsel& as well any supporting documents
that you include with the resume, cover letters, salary in&ormation and re&erences.
6s an e/ecutive recruiter H(eadhunter$ &or several years " would read literally hundreds o& resumes
each week in hope o& &inding the Lper&ectM candidate &or my client. 6s time passed " was amaDed at
how many people " caught in outright lies on their resume. Ranging &rom blatantly =9T having the
re,uired skills needed to lying about have a particular college degree. !ersonally " &ound it &ool hardy
to lie about something you can>t &igure out how to bullshit your way through. For e/ample, don>t lie
about having knowledge o& some particular so&tware programming language i& you>re not well versed
in it. =ow, i& you>re &amiliar with it and can get up to speed rapidly once you have the job, by all
means go ahead and pad your resume.
6nother thing that amaDed and &rustrated me was how rigid and myopic employers were about their job
re,uirements. ?any times " had the ideal candidate who didn>t have the re,uired e/perience listed on
hisNher resume despite the &act the candidates previous history was relevant enough &or himNher to do
the job in a very competent &ashion. 6s my e/perience grew, so did my ability to deduce that many o&
my smarter applicants were lying on their resumes to get the job. They were smart about the way they
lied in that they only lied about things they could back up. "t was due to these &acts the idea &or this
manual began.
1) Why Fake Your Resume?
(ave you ever been passed over &or a job despite the &act you <=E% you could>ve done the job in a
stellar &ashion 6re you &rustrated because you never got a college degree yet do the EO64T same job
as someone who does and you get paid thousands o& dollars less (ave you been hampered &rom
moving up in the pro&essional world because you lacked the LrightM job title despite the &act your
employment e/perience was e/actly what the job description listed "& this describes you then perhaps
it>s time you wrote a &ake resume.
%hy write a &ake resume There are many legitimate reasons &or writing a &ake resume. !erhaps your
current job title didn't properly convey all the duties or responsibilities that you had. ?aybe you were
unemployed &or a period o& time. Everyone knows that doesn't look good on your resume. 8id you
assist a manager who was incompetent and you made them look good on the job 7etter yet, ;9C did
their job but &or whatever reason, perhaps because o& nepotism you could never get promoted to their
job. 9ut o& &rustration you ,uit but now you 46=>T put that &ools job title as your own despite the &act
that ;9C did hisNher job@ %orse yet due to jealousy or animosity because you ,uit and now &or the
&irst time they (6JE to do their own work they won>t give you a good re&erence.
4an this be considered lying !erhaps, but don't you deserve a shot a job you know you can do %hat
about your prospective employer>s honesty (ow open and honest are they to their employees and
&uture employees 6nyone who>s read the newspaper or watched the evening news has witnessed the
lack o& integrity that runs rampant in today>s corporate world.
"n my e/perience very &ew employers will &ully reveal any unpleasant details a&&ecting the positions
they advertise. " had a candidate that lived in =ew ;ork and " recruited &or a startup in 4ali&ornia. (e
and " were both assured that this start up was &inancially stable and had enough cash &low at the current
burn rate to stay in business three years. " personally spoke with the 4hie& Financial 9&&icer to
,uestion him about the long term stability o& the client. " wasn>t about to have a person give up their
li&e and move away &rom &amily and &riends &or something that wasn>t reasonably stable. 7ased on the
assurance given me and my candidate by the 4F9, he accepted the job, gave up his rent controlled
apartment in =ew ;ork and moved to 4ali&ornia. 6bout #' weeks later he and hal& o& the company
were unceremoniously laid o&&. " couldn>t begin to e/plain how devastated " was when " learned o& this
disaster. 6&ter all this man gave up his li&e due in large part because " convinced him to move all the
way across the country &or the job. (e ended up suing the company but " never learned what happened
or heard &rom the man again. 6&ter that debacle " never again looked at corporate 6merica in the same
manner.
!erhaps your &uture boss or coIworkers are complete bastards. !erhaps they know that the division
you>ll be working &or will soon be eliminated, or perhaps the entire corporation is in &inancial trouble
and will soon be laying o&& large numbers o& employees. "n cases like these, you can bet that the hiring
corporation will seldom let issues like &airness and morality get in their way. They need to &ill the job
and get on with their business. "t>s a sad &act that corporations are seldom completely honest when it
comes to the in&ormation that an applicant needs to make an intelligent decision about the desirability
o& the position. "t seems very hypocritical &or a prospective employer to insist on applicants being
entirely honest while they regularly conceal relevant job details.
;ou have )3 2econds to Grab Their 6ttention@ Resumes are all about presentation. 2ome hiring
manager is going to scan your resume and make a determination in about )3 seconds or less, whether
or not you're ,uali&ied. 6&ter all, i& you don't get to the interview, you can't possibly land the job, right
The bottom line is i& you know you can do the job, then why shouldn't you &lu&& up your resume a bit
%e all know a great deal o& people who have held jobs that they were not ,uali&ied to have. ;et there
they were day in and day out collecting big paychecks while other people corrected their &re,uent
mistakes. This guide will teach you how to take your real li&e e/perience and embellished on them so
you get the job you deserve.
2) How widespread is fraud and lying on resumes
%ere you ever beaten out o& a job because a competitor padded his resume 5et>s go to the statsE "n a
poll o& #-3 hiring e/ecutives at large companies, the e/ecs estimated that nearly )3 percent o& all job
candidates &udge on their rKsumKs. "t>s actually worse than that, says !atricia Gillette, a 2an Francisco
lawyer who has investigated hundreds o& rKsumKs while de&ending companies against &ormer
employees. G!robably 13 percent o& the time, people lie on their rKsumK,G she says. L%e &igure that
means +3 percent o& the job &orce lies and gets away with it.M
L(ire RightM recently released some interesting statistics that show how rampant resume &raud is in the
Cnited 2tates. The company>s numbers show that 03 percent o& all resumes are misleading, '3 percent
state &raudulent degrees, )3 percent show altered employment dates, *3 percent have in&lated salary
claims, )3 percent have inaccurate job descriptions, '- percent list companies that no longer e/ist, and
'. percent give &alsi&ied re&erences 2ome statistics state that i& you reviewed #33 resumes, a whopping
.- percent o& them would reveal a G&ib, &allacy or some outright lie.
3) How a prospeci!e employer sees your resume
(ere is a list o& ,uestions that reviewers and screeners may ask themselves as they review your resume.
;ou would be well advised to review this list and amend your resume accordingly.
#. 8id the applicant tailor hisNher resume &or this position, or does the applicant seem to sending out
mass mailings
'. "s the applicant's education relevant and su&&icient &or position
). "s the applicant's educational background relatively current
*. Throughout hisNher work e/perience, has the applicant enriched and updated hisNher education and
work e/perience with additional classes, retreats, seminars, workshops or con&erences
-. 8oes the applicant have su&&icient background e/perience to ,uali&y &or position
+. (as the applicant bounced &rom school to school or &rom job to job
.. 8oes the applicant's resume cover all o& the job re,uirements mentioned in the job announcement
0. "s there anything that the applicant has le&t out
1. (as the applicant included any items on hisNher resume that demonstrate that the applicant is a sel&I
starter, shows &uture promise or initiative
#3. (as the applicant proven through past e/perience and education hisNher competency in the re,uired
&ocus o& this job
##. (as the applicant listed all re,uired licenses or certi&icates
#'. (as the applicant been inconsistent in the &ormat o& hisNher resume 6re there omitted dates,
descriptions, re&erences, etc., &or some positions but not &or others
#). (as the applicant stressed irrelevant abilities HE/ampleE applicant stresses management skills
when position re,uires engineering skills$
#*, 8oes the applicant have gaps in hisNher job history that are une/plained
#-. (as the applicant been involved in community, school or volunteer activities H"mportant &or
employees entering the job market &or the &irst time or those who have been out o& the job market &or a
while$.
#+. 8oes the applicant's resume re&lect both depth and variety o& e/perience
#.. "s the applicant's resume neat and complete
#0. 8oes the applicant appear to be over ,uali&ied
#1. "s the resume believable or does the applicant appear to be padding hisNher accomplishments
") 2# hings ha will raise red flags and rigger $uesions
There are a number o& things employers will consider when screening applications or resumes. The
way in&ormation is conveyed, or not conveyed, can send up certain Gred &lagsG to the employer that
indicates that something may be amiss. %hile discovery o& a red &lag may not warrant passingIover an
applicant, the prudent screener will generally &ind out additional in&ormation be&ore making a &inal
decision on the application.
#. 6 dated employment that all starts and ends on e/act beginning o& the multi year why Aanuary #st
8ecember #st so on so &orth.
'. ;ou can take a company that has recently merge with another big company and say that you're
applying records were lost a in the merge which is very common occurrence. %hen companies merge,
many personnel departments that maintain the records are laid o& and keeping things together as a result
can get con&using. There&ore i& you can write down that your previous employer merged with another
corporation, and there>s been some delay in getting your records or veri&ication, you can buy yoursel&
sometime.
). 6nother good way o& putting down that you had e/perience is to saying that you are a volunteer
somewhere. That way you don't have to produce any paychecks or %I's. 4all around town to
volunteer organiDations and &ind out i& there are any departments that might have people with skill sets
that you're interviewing &or. The 6merican Red 4ross s has a history o& using computer programmers.
"t's highly likely that you can put them down on your resume that you did work there. "t>s an easy way
&or you to add some e/perience on your resume but power&ul because you did the work &or &ree makes
you look like a damn good person.
*. "& you're going to write down that you're sel&Iemployed don't get too carried away about all the skills
the job you had all a wonder&ul e/perience. Remember, i& they &eel that you're too good to be true their
red &lags will pop up into my start to dig deeper or doubt your whole resume. "& you write that you
were sel&Iemployed keep it basic, and keep it believable.
-. 9n the older jobs you held, &eel &ree to put down re&erences and positions that are completely made
up, since many people do retire o&ten out o& the older companies.
+. ?ake sure that the company that you say you worked &or in the past it is similar business o& the line
that you're hiring &or now are trying to get a job &or and now. (uman resources people generally pre&er
hiring prospective candidates that came &rom a similar industry &rom similar companies even
competitive companies pre&erably. There&ore i& you>re making up a company that you supposedly
worked &or, make sure that you pick a company that they &eel is similar to the one you>re
interviewing &or.
.. 8on't be too carried away in use re&erences or supervisors that no have &orwarding address or aren't
reachable. (uman resources people will smell a rat and start digging deeper into your resume. Try to
avoid doing this i& at all possible. "& you're going to use bogus re&erences, it's 9< to have one or two
who are no longer reachable. !re&erably, have a &ew &riends in place who will give stellar
recommendations &or you.
0. 4are&ully e/amine &unctional resumes. Functional resumes can be used to hide gaps in employment
because they do not tie skills learned to speci&ic jobs. The &unctional resume is o&ten used to mask
someone who is jumps &rom job to job or has a di&&icult time holding on to a position.
1. 6re suspected salary needs comparable to the job 7ased on the applicant's background, will heNshe
have salary e/pectations that are substantially higher than your organiDation may be able to pay
%ould the applicant be taking a big pay cut %hy %ould the new position be a great leap in pay "&
so, can the candidate justi&y it by hisNher ,uali&ications
#3. 5ookout &or clutter. 2ome applicants may try to pad or embellish their resume or application with
incidental hobbies, activities and e/perience not related to the position being applied &or, to cover
de&iciencies in their work record.
##. %atch out &or neatness and completeness. "& an applicant does not take the time to make sure that
hisNher application is complete and without mistakes, it may indicate that heNshe will not be attentive to
details on the job either.
#'. 8oes the applicant take too much credit %atch out &or applicants who assume &ull credit &or a
project that was probably undertaken by several sta&& people.
#). 8oes the applicant use vague generalities to describe hisNher work or does heNshe tie statements to
speci&ic veri&iable projects
#*. %atch out &or an inconsistent career path. (as the applicant made many o& lateral moves, changed
pro&essions several times or stayed at his past positions &or short periods o& time %hat reasons are
given &or leaving previous positions
#-. The laDy way to match your resume to the job description &or the company is in a bulleted list o&
e/periences. 8on't just sit down with the job description and copy it directly into your resume. "&
you're bloated list doesn't match your previous job e/periences were job history you will raise many
red &lags. "t is anything that doesn't make sense in your resume make sure you e/plained it in your
cover letter.
#+. Aob responsibilities and can be &aked easily. <eep in mind that the larger the company you worked
in the more speci&ic you're job description will need to be. "& you were to smaller company perhaps a
startup, then it will be believable that you held down many responsibilities and had to e/perience to
multiple tasks.
#.. ?any times a prospect o& employer will determine you're level responsibility based upon your
salary compensation. 2o be&ore you put yoursel& as a manager, or supervisor, make sure you do some
research on the salaries &or the positions &or the level o& responsibility in your geographical area.
2alary.com is just one o& the great many sites where you can get an e/act salary compensation guide
based on job skill set and the Dip code.
#0. ?any managers pride themselves on using gut intuition or instinct to determine i& you're lying or
telling the truth whether it is on a resume or during your interview. This is why your resume should be
&anci&ul. ;ou're responsibilities should be close or match e/actly your job description or title. ;our
salary should be in line with your title.
#1. Take time to learn the common terms or buDDwords o& the industry or company that you're applying
&or. 2ometimes just knowing the right terms and job speci&ic terminology is enough to make it past the
interviewer. 9& course this wouldn't apply to being a plastic surgeon or engineer. (owever, i& you
know the proper terminology, and had the educational background to match what they are looking &or,
you will ace the interview.
'3. ?ake sure that your e/perience and educational background makes make sense. 4erti&ications,
degrees and other training must correlate to whatever e/perience you claim to have.
'#. ;ou may be asked &or documentation, which proves what ,uali&ications, licenses, course,
completions, certi&ications, diplomas or job evaluations you may have. ;our prospective employer
may called your &ormer employer directly and ask about the accuracy o& the claim to the documents
you have. 6 smart prospective employer will asked to see the original o& any documentation have as
opposed two copies. %ith a good laser printer you can &orge just about anything you need.
''. 5icensing in&ormation such as a real estate license can be veri&ied by checking the licensing agency.
8on't &orge any paperwork or document it can easily be veri&ied. ;ou are just asking to be caught i&
you do.
'). (ere are a &ew o& the things that companies may ask &or.
F !aycheck stubs.
F Employment contracts.
F 7usiness cards.
F "ncome ta/ returns.
F 5etters o& employment.
F %ork documents &rom the company you worked &or describing what you did &or them.
'*. 2ometimes human resources people will ask the names o& your coIworkers who might be able to
veri&y that you worked at that particular company. "n some e/treme circumstances human resources
might ask these people to veri&y what documentation their company re,uires &or hiring.
'-. ;ou might be re,uired to show your knowledge re,uired to do the job.
F They will give you a written test asking ,uestions pertaining to your particular skill set e/perience
level that you should have. 2o be ready &or it.
F ?any times a company will have a technical interview on the phone with you, to determine i& you
actually have the knowledge o& the skill sets necessary.
F Jery o&ten human resources people will speak to people in the same pro&ession who how the skill
set that are interviewing &or.
'+. "& you're interviewing &or a manager position, you>ll probably the ask ,uestions about the projects
and responsibility that you held as well as your previous accomplishments. This is not the time to brag
about how awesome you are. =ow is a time &or you to build more credibility and show how you would
add value to the company based on your previous successes. "& write in your resume that you were part
o& particular project &or a division, make sure that you have your details straight. ;ou'll need to know
inIdepth knowledge o& the project, how many people were on the team, what the budget &or your
project was, what division as well as whether or not it was a success and why. "& you are vague, and
lack any details in your management e/perience, suspicions will arise. ?ake sure you have knowledge
o& why the project was success&ul did save money did save turnover did improve procedure is anything
like that. The more details you how the more convincing you'll sound. ?ake sure that i& you are
taking credit &or something that they can't look at out in any public records press releases or any other
documentation available to public. 2ometimes companies will call your previous employer and ask
them and details about your responsibilities and your success&ul project.
%) How much should you lie on your resume?
;ou read the help wanted ad and the job seems per&ect &or you. ;ou seem per&ect &or it too. ;ou have
got all the ,uali&ications they're asking &or. 9h, wait. %hat does that say (mmm. They want someone
who has e/perience with that. L%ell, " can do that,M you think to yoursel&. L" just haven't done it be&ore.
7ut, "'m sure " can learn.M ?ost o& us have had thoughts like this &loat through our minds. (owever,
each o& us may choose a di&&erent course o& action. 5et's take a &ew e/amplesE
F Aob 2earcher 6 saysE L9h well. " guess " don't ,uali&y &or this job.M (e or she moves onto the ne/t
help wanted ad.
F Aob 2earcher 7 saysE L9.<., so " don't have the e/perience they're asking &or. " can just make
something up. 6&ter all the last company " worked &or isn't in business anymore. This new one will
never &ind out what " did or didn't do there.G Aob 2earcher P' is just a &ew keystrokes away &rom adding
&ictional responsibilities to his or her resume.
F Aob 2earcher 4 saysE L"t's obvious " don't have the e/perience they want but " do know " can easily
pick up the skills " need to do the job. The only thing " can do is take a chance and apply &or the job
anyway. "'ll use my cover letter to e/plain that " don't have the re,uired skills but " am willing to do
whatever is necessary to ac,uire them. "'ll e/plain that " do have related skills. %hat have " got to lose
anywayM
#) Fine uning your resume
%hat is tuning Tuning happens when di&&erent job opportunities are possible at the same time, but the
job posting needs di&&erent skill sets. The job seeker then changes their resume to re&lect a closer match
with the job description. 9ne GtunesG the resume to re&lect the desired skill set or a closer match to the
desired skill set. Tuning can also be described as GreachingG. This is where a person takes on the
persona o& someone one level higher. 2ince the individual is &amiliar with the responsibilities and lingo
o& people one level higher in the organiDation, it is common practice &or the resume to reach and
represent a skill set one notch higher. The Ae&&rey !apows case study below outlines one such published
story.
G2hadingG is another synonym &or GTuningG. The truth &or many people is the color gray versus black
or white. 9ne e/ample o& 2hading is when Gsi/ monthsG o& e/perience turns into Galmost a yearG o&
e/perience.
4omputer "ndustry Tuning e/amplesE
F 9ne scripting language e/perience is turned into another I !erl turns into Aava scriptNJ7 2cript,
since GscriptingG is all the same I =9T Halso re&er to the article called I The cost o& covert onItheIjob
training$
F 26! skills turning into !eopleso&t or 7aan skills and vice versa
F 2ybase skills turning into ?icroso&t 2Q5
F - out o& + skills are real, but one skill is padding
F The opening is &or a senior level I a person with si/ months actual e/perience talks their way
through the interview process as a person with ' years e/perience, but can't deliver the results
F =ew technology buDDword trap I the interviewer needs competence in the skill to &ind out the
candidate's competency. "& the knowledge is something cutting edge, the chance that one would get
&ound out is limited. For e/ample I O?5 e/perience is still ,uite rare, so tests might not be out yet that
cover that space and it is guaranteed that engineering management would not have the handsIon O?5
e/perience@
F 4RR turns into Aava I a person is hired at B#'-Nhr as a Aava programmer. %ell it turns out that the
person is actually a good 4RR programmer, but pu&&ed up the resume to appear like there were Aava
skills and got through the interview process without being detected, since the candidate had read a book
on Aava programming.
=ow this person is trying to get the job done, but isn't delivering at the speed e/pected &or the wage
being paid. "n this instance, i& the resume had been time stamped and stored in a central repository, it
would have been obvious that there was no Aava e/pertise, but strong 4RR e/pertise. The hiring
company could then have decided to provide the overt training &or the individual, but not at the B#'-Nhr
&ee, but at say a more reasonable B03 per hour &ee.
&) 'ncreasing he le!el of your e(perience
(ow ?uch E/perience 8o ;ou Really (ave %hen a person says they have ten years e/perience, do
they mean they have ten years e/perience, or do they have one year o& e/perience repeated ten times
?any times the company is trying to hire &or a position re,uiring at least three years o& e/perience in a
particular skill set. The ,uestion is, do they need someone with three years e/perience or will some one
with oneIyear e/perience repeated threeItimes su&&ice
The only way &or the hiring person to determine this, assisted down with you during an interview in
asking ,uestions that relate to seller with e/tensive e/perience. 6 &ew o& the ways a company might try
to &igure out your true level o& e/perience, is to ask you a &ew ,uestions like the &ollowingE
F ;our previous salary history
F 6 detailed job description.
F %hat kind o& ,uali&ications you had be&ore e/perience.
;ou have to use some common sense i& you are going to L&udgeM your resume. For e/ample i& you're
saying that you had e/perience as a Aava programmer, don't write that you have OO years e/perience
programming Aava when Aava o& has only been around &or ;; years.
(uman resources personnel will check your e/perience in several ways.
#. They will give you a written test asking ,uestions pertaining to your particular skill set e/perience
level that you should have. 2o be ready &or it.
'. ?any times a company will have a technical interview on the phone with you, to determine i& you
actually have the knowledge o& the skill sets necessary.
). Jery o&ten human resources people will speak to people in the same pro&ession who how the skill set
that are interviewing &or.
"& you're interviewing &or a manager position, you>ll probably the ask ,uestions about the projects and
responsibility that you held as well as your previous accomplishments. This is not the time to brag
about how awesome you are. =ow is a time &or you to build more credibility and show how you would
add value to the company based on your previous successes.
"& write in your resume that you were part o& particular project &or a division, make sure that you have
your details straight. ;ou'll need to know inIdepth knowledge o& the project, how many people were
on the team, what the budget &or your project was, what division as well as whether or not it was a
success and why. "& you are vague, and lack any details in your management e/perience, suspicions
will arise. ?ake sure you have knowledge o& why the project was success&ul did save money did save
turnover did improve procedure is anything like that. The more details you how the more convincing
you'll sound. ?ake sure that i& you are taking credit &or something that they can't look at out in any
public records press releases or any other documentation available to public. 2ometimes companies
will call your previous employer and ask them and details about your responsibilities and your
success&ul project.
=eed ?ore Aob E/perience
"& you have put in some years in your &ield but &ind that employers want even more e/perience, you
may want to try this little ploy. 2ay you worked &or your last employer &or two years and the employers
are looking &or three to &ive years here is a way to add some years to your resume in an untraceable
manner. 5eave the employment dates o& your last employer unaltered. Hyou'll have to as they can be
easily veri&ied with a simple phone call$ "nsert employers be&ore your last one and show that you
worked &or them &or the additional years you need. 9& course, your work there was in the same &ield so
you now have a total between the two employers o& as many years as you like in your chosen &ield. "&
you can, try to add a re&erence &rom a &irm in another state that went out o& business as this would
render that re&erence entirely untraceable. 4hances are e/cellent that i& your last employer provides a
positive re&erence, a prospective employer will be satis&ied.
(ow not to arouse suspicion
(iring managers will sometimes be suspicious i& your job description or titles are an almost per&ect
match to the one that they described in at or job board posting. ?ost people know that i& it's too good
to be true it probably is. There&ore, i& the job description has some keywords which you know &or sure
are hot buttons &or the hiring manager, than make sure to pepper in those keywords in your resume, so
long as it isn't too blatantly obvious.
%hen a prospective employee calls a previous employer, they will most likely ask your previous
employer the job title that you held. 2ometimes they'll ask what other titles you might have held at the
company.
6gain, i& your resume matches word &or word the job description &rom the job board posting, you will
raise their suspicions. 2ometimes they will look &or a consistent writing style. 2ince many people just
cut and paste the job description and put it in their resume, (uman Resources people are used to
busting people that are too laDy to make the key words blend in smoothly. ?ake sure that you take a
time to reword as well as you keep the keywords were the hot button where it's in your resume.
(ardIcore hiring managers may ask re&erences o& your re&erences. 2ometimes this can trip up your
&riend trying to do you a &avor. "t's not likely to this might happen, but beware o& it.
8etermine the vulnerability o& your prospective employer I Even a lousy liar might be able to outsmart
on a tiny company. (owever more and more large companies are using pro&essional preIemployment
checkers, such as Research 6ssociates, "nc HR6"$., in 4leveland. R6" e/posed #. percent o& the #),333
job applicants it screened last year, &inding that they had lied about college degrees, credit problems,
criminal records, or why they le&t their last jobs. 2moke out the employers that use checkers by saying,
G">d like to tell my re&erences who will be calling. %ill you call, or will you use a serviceG "& it>s a
service, you should back o&&. "& not, it>s &ull speed ahead.
4ustomiDing ;our E/perience
There are many ways to customiDe your previous e/perience to sound as i& you>re the per&ect candidate
&or the job. =inetyItwo percent o& all employers contact potential employee>s &ormer supervisors,
according to a recent survey by the 2ociety &or (uman Resource ?anagement. 2o, suppose the position
you>re applying &or re,uires e/perience in management. 2ome rKsumK cheats create &alse re&erences
that are di&&icult to check. 8an Aensen a &ormer high tech pro&essional &ound a way to do this when a
computer company he worked &or went belly up. G6bout a hal&IdoDen o& us stood around the parking
lot and agreed to act as supervisors to give re&erences &or each other,G he recalls. Aensen always gave a
&ellow conspirator a ring be&ore a recruiter was going to call, to make sure they had their story straight
HG8an was a model manager, although he tends to put in too many hoursSG$.
Filling in the (oles I 2ay you spent two years Gtrying to &ind yoursel&G Hin other words, mooching o&&
your parents$E Aensen says you can mend the gap by claiming to have worked &or a small company that
is out o& business or &or a now shuttered division o& an e/isting &irm. 9n the other hand, he suggests,
look in business and trade magaDines &or obituaries o& e/ecutives, one o& whom you can claim to have
had as a boss. "& your employment gap is only about si/ months, resist the urge to tack three months
onto the end o& the previous job and three onto the beginning o& the ne/t, because past employers
gladly dole out e/act years, months, and days o& employment. Rather, the best cheaters concoct a good
lie. G"& you take time out &or &amily reasons, most companies are understanding,G says !atrick 7oyle, a
resume writer in 4osta ?esa, 4ali&ornia, who in no way advocates lying. 2o you can tell potential
employers, G" le&t work &or si/ months in #11+T&amily reasons. ?y grand&ather, God bless his soul.G
They>ll back o&&.
6djusting the length o& time on the job I ?ost jobs are o& a repetitive nature. 6&ter the &irst three to si/
months, you're doing the same thing repeatedly. 2o in essence, it may take you those three to si/
months to get a &eel &or a job. 6gain, were not talking here about a job as an engineer a surgeon, or a
.*. pilot. 9bviously, those jobs re,uire specialiDed and intensive training. There&ore, length o& time on
the job is a good place &or you to stretch the truth.
!artItime e/perience I "& you worked #- to '3 hours a week as opposed to *3 hours a week, you still
have to have pro&iciency on the job. 2o any partItime work you had, put down that you had been
working their &ullItime.
?erging job e/perience I 2ometimes you worked in the same industry but held di&&erent jobs. 5et's say
you are three months on one job and three months on another job, doing the same kind o& work. 2ince
employers hate people who job hop, you should merge those two jobs, so that it shows that you spent
si/ months at the same company. %hich company should you choose to write that you were there &or
si/ months 4hoose the one where i& your prospective employer calls &or a re&erence you have a good
inside person to lie &or you. 2ometimes you should do the same thing i& you held a job that was not in
the same industry as the one you are applying &or now. 5et's say you had several jobs in the re,uired
area but somewhere along the line, you had a job that had nothing to do with the one you are applying
&or now. 4hange the job that is not appropriate and tack on the time to one o& the other jobs.
9ld job e/perience I 5et's say you've been in the job &orce over '3 years, and you have got e/perience
your prospective employer needs but it was ten years ago or more. %hat do you do Easy. !ut down
e/perience that they're looking &or as being more recent than it is. 6 prospective employer will
immediately rule you out i& you>re relevant e/perience is to dated or old.
)) Faking your college educaion
%hen claiming a bogus degree always remember to leave enough time in your resume to allow the
re,uired college attendance. 8egrees just don>t happen instantly, they re,uire long years o& work. "n
addition, you claim that you attended college while you worked, you>ll have to allot an even longer
period. 7e well prepared to e/plain how and when you earned your listed degree. 6lso, keep in mind
that your job title and listed salary must be in line with your claimed academic ,uali&ications. 7e sure
that your salary a&ter earning your degree re&lects the e/pected increase. "& not, it>ll raise a red &lag.
!lease be very care&ul to avoid using these techni,ues to go a&ter a job that>s obviously over your head.
8on>t get into/icated with the idea o& earning a huge salary. 7elieve me, this is a &ormula &or disaster.
Cnless you>re absolutely sure that you possess the skills and e/perience necessary to be success&ul in
your new position U stay within your capabilities.
"& you can, visit the campus o& your new alma mater. 2troll around, taking particular note o& the streets
and bars in the immediate vicinity. Get a copy o& the school>s catalog and study it care&ully. 4ommit to
memory two or three o& the more prominent pro&essor>s names and &aces.
4ollege transcripts are e/tremely easy to &orge. 2imply get a copy o& someone else>s legitimate
transcript and a copy o& the college catalog &or the period you>ll claim you attended Hlarger libraries
usually have past school catalogs$. ?ake as good a copy o& the real transcript as you can, use cover up
strips to block out your name and other personal in&ormation. Then use a computer or typewriter to
replace the previous personal in&ormation with your own. ;ou can plan to spend an entire evening
working out the details o& your newNold degree and creating a believable copy o& your transcripts.
?oreover, be sure to include that allIimportant raised seal.
;ou may also want to know that several o& the larger Cniversities are international in scope. They
maintain locations both here in the C2 and overseas. 9ne o& the largest o& these is one that>s located in
the state o& ?aryland.
There>s also the ,uestion o& a completely new spectrum o& degree programs, which due to longI
distance learning, don>t re,uire physical classroom attendance &or a set number o& years. ?any o& these
video, web or longIdistance programs can be ,uite legitimate, such as The Cniversity o& !hoeni/, now
recogniDed as the largest university in the C.2. because o& its aggressive marketing o& distance learning.
The stigma o& distance learning is rapidly disappearing thanks to the "nternet so even i& you claim that
you got your degree &rom a web based school you>re still going to be credible.
"& you claim a degree &rom one o& these international schools and your &uture employer should
e/perience problems when they attempt to veri&y your degree, you could claim that the university has
so many di&&erent operations that the veri&ication process is rather unreliable. ">ve known several
people who have success&ully used this approach. "t>s a common and there&ore believable story.
=ever &orget that those &riendly &olks who run mail drops will gladly open a bo/ &or you through the
mail. 2ee the list o& mail drops at the end o& this report. ;ou can then use this new bo/ as the college>s
o&&icial mailing address. This means that the degree veri&ication &orm will be sent directly to you so that
you can then provide the veri&ication yoursel&.
*) +ur!i!ing he employmen ,ackground check
!revious and current employers
!rospective employers are always going to want to check on where you worked in the past. 4hecking
your previous employment locally do a lot easier to do been checking and another state or another
country. 2ometimes you can put down that you worked in another country. %ell one o& the easiest
ways to deceive a prospective employer is to put down the work &or company that went out o& business.
=ow don't be too obvious about this. "& you write down that three o& your si/ past employers are out o&
business, some red &lags will pop up. "t'll know right away either you're a liar, or you jin/ companies.
6nother way o& doing this is to list the right employer that you work &or but to write down a di&&erent
division department or section. 7y putting a grain o& truth in your resume and makes it less likely that
you will be caught.
G8o not contact my current employerG I %hen &illing out a job application, always check the little bo/
that re,uests that the prospective employer not re,uest a re&erence &rom your current employer. Even i&
you>re not, this will make you appear more valuable as a currently employed prospect will always be
more desirable then one who is unemployed. (iring companies just love to think that they>re GstealingG
you away &rom another &irm. ?ost o& the hiring managers we spoke to revealed that they seldom bother
to &ollow up with an employment re&erence with your last employer a&ter you>re on their payroll.
HThough you have to consider this possibility i& it>s stated on the application$.
%riting down that you're sel&Iemployed is another easy way o& getting around an imper&ect past. 2ince
your prospective employer can>t check your re&erences he'll have to depend on other ways o& &inding
out the validity o& your resume.
!revious job responsibilities
!u&&ery is very common on all resumes. %e all slant our resume to make them sound as i& we have
more e/perience than we do. The trick is to do in such a way that it is believable.?ake them whenever
you have to, to match the background responsibilities that they are looking &or, a long as you can back
i& up. "& you are going to talk the talk, you had better walk to the walk.
9ne o& the red &lags that human resources people look &or is weighing whether you held more
responsibility and then your title would make sense. The job tile that you say you held in the level
responsibility that you held must match, and make sense. 9therwise, you open yoursel& up to a lot
more &urther investigation. For e/ample, i& you were an assistant sales manager why would you be
doing all the details o& the job o& the actual sales manager 6 logical e/planation would be that the
actual sales manager was sick contains an outIo&Itown, or some other similar reason
Everyone knows that sometimes, people can end up with more responsibility than their job implies.
?ake sure that your resume content makes sense or you will arouse suspicion. %hich usually leads to
a bunch o& ,uestions you may not want to answer.
=egative work history
"& you leave your job under negative circumstances, can your e/Iemployer reveal it during employment
background checks "& you're not sure what a background check might reveal about you, then be proI
active and do one on yoursel& just to be sa&e.
"n some C.2. states, most o& what right&ully belongs in your personnel &ile is not con&idential. For
e/ample, in 4ali&ornia, only medical in&ormation He. g., physical e/ams$ is con&idential. 6dditionally,
you might have signed a release &orm when you hired on, authoriDing your employer to give out
employmentIrelated in&ormation about you, without conse,uence. Even i& you didn't sign such a &orm,
it might be in a policy manual and you likely agreed in some way, shape or &orm to abide by company
policies. H2ome states consider policy manuals as binding, implied contracts.$ 2imilarly, your
prospective employers might re,uire you to sign releases authoriDing them to collect in&ormation about
you during background checks. 6s i& all that isn't enough to put you on edge, states are starting to pass
laws that allow employers to speak more candidly during employment background checks, without the
risk o& de&amation lawsuits.
2till, you might be able to rela/. "t's not so much what employers can say, as it is what they're willing
to risk saying. "n many states, the laws related to employment background checks allow you to sue, i&
your e/Iemployer intentionally states &alse or misleading in&ormation that prevents you &rom landing a
job. (owever, employers are still hesitant to even state the truth, because &ormer employees might try
to sue anyway. "t's a burden o& proo& thing and it costs employers to go to or stay out o& court. Even i&
employers are in the clear, they risk workerIbee juries siding with the Glittle peopleG against the Gbig,
bad, corporate giants.G
;ou have other things on your side, too. =ot every employer has legal eagles on sta&&, who can
correctly interpret the laws. There&ore shy away &rom the comple/ities or are just plain naive about
what they can legally say. There are plenty o& nightmarish lawsuit myths and rumors &loating around,
too. 6s a result, all but the bravest employers play it sa&e and try to avoid backgroundIcheck legalities
in the &irst place.
"& your e/Iemployer plays it sa&e, they will give out only scant in&ormation, such as your name, rank
and serial number. The typical e,uivalents &or employment background checks are listed below.
F 8ates or con&irmation o& employment
F Aob titles held
F Final salary, but some employers won't give that out unless you authoriDe it in writing
F 9ther Gsa&eG &acts, such as companyIsponsored training classes you attended
7ut, there's always a but. Employers &ace yet another lawsuit dilemma, which might make them more
willing to spill the beans about you. 5aws in some states permit employers to sue other employers, i&
during employment background checks, they omit or lie about serious employee acts, especially i& the
employees again commit the same or similar acts on the job. Employers might also get sued &or
Gnegligent hiringG i& they don't screen employees through background checks, and someone su&&ers
injury because o& it. Two rather serious e/amples are convicted child molesters working with children
and substance abusers working in the transportation industry.
2o &ar, we>ve &ocused on employment background checks only at the company (R level. !ain&ully
honest or spite&ul &ormer coworkers, supervisors and managers are another matter. 2ome (R
departments try to &urther limit their risk, by issuing guidelines that instruct employees in the do's and
don'ts o& &ormerIemployee background checks. The Gdo'sG are typically along the lines o& name, rank
and serial number, as mentioned earlier. The Gdon'tsG might instruct employees to reveal nothing and
let the (R department handle background checks. Cn&ortunately, not every company is diligent about
limiting background checks at the employee level. %orse, not every employee reads, remembers or
adheres to the guidelines anyway. Regardless, (R might allow employees to speak candidly with
companyIauthoriDed employment agencies and background investigators.
!ro&essional investigators who o&&er employment background checks know that employers might be
&ear&ul o& lawsuits, so they cleverly phrase ,uestions to reveal volumes while limiting risk. For
e/ample, instead o& asking, G%hy did this person leave your companyG they might ask, G%ould you
hire this person backG 6 vague, evasive or simple G=oG answer doesn't reveal much in the way o&
potentially libelous in&ormation, but the investigative minds will read between the lines.
2alary (istory
%hen he comes in negotiating salary, companies can get very nosey about your past salary
compensation history. "t's always best &or you to never mention what your salary background was.
2alaries are a common way &or companies to screen people out.
?ost human resources personnel, know the salary rates &or all skill levels that their hiring &or. That
means i& you are giving them a salary history that is either way above are way below what they're
e/pecting, you will raise their suspicions. 6gain, this is a time when doing your homework or research
comes in handy. ;our prospective employer will have a de&inite idea as to how much you were
making at your previous job.
"n some cases become a might ask you to see your paycheck stubs, income ta/ returns, #311s, %I's,
and any other documents a supporter claim this is where knowledge o& document &orgery comes in
handy.
Education
9nly *3: o& companies regularly veri&y degrees earned, according to a study by the 2ociety &or
(uman Resource ?anagement, and even then, they might miss diploma mills.
%hen it comes your previous educational history, the longer you've been in the work &orce the less
likely your prospective employer will check to veri&y it. "& you have a high school education put down
that you have a bachelor's degree. "& you have a bachelor's degree put down that you have a ?asters
degree. %hy 7ecause in the &inal analysis an employers &inal decision will o&ten be based on your
education. "& a prospective employer has to choose between you and another candidate, small things
like your education, or where you went to school can be the deciding &actor in your winning or losing
the job. <eep in mind that the higher education you have the better pay you will receive.
?ake sure that the date o& your education makes sense. 6n average bachelor degree takes &our years to
get on &ullItime schedule. There&ore i& your work history shows that you are working &ullItime and
going to school &ullItime, and you say that you got your degree in &our years, some suspicion may rise.
Take a school that you actually know people on the campus or instructors are &amiliar with the school
itsel&. "t is a very small world, and you don't want to &ind out that the person interviewing you &or a job
is a graduate o& the school you claim to get a 7achelor's or ?asters 8egree &rom.
The other thing that an (R ?anager will look &or is what job did you get right out o& college 8oes
the job title and pay make sense &or someone with the degree you claim to have 9n the other hand,
did you put down job that is e/cessively low in stature and prestige &or a recent college graduate
Everything you write down has to &low together and make sense.
%hen it comes to proving your education they will usually asked &or a photocopy o& your degree or
copies o& your transcripts. That>s easy to &orge with a good printer and the help o& some good imaging
so&tware like 6dobe !hotoshop. "& they ask &or your transcripts &rom a school, no problem you can
take care that. "& they ask you to sign the &orm &or a transcript re,uest, and want to mail it, then you
have a problem. ?ake sure, i& you're &orging a transcript, that when you mail back the transcript &rom
the same city that the school is. ;ou>d be amaDed how many people have been tripped up on something
ask simple as that. "& necessary, hire a mail drop service.
(ow much scrutiny can your resume stand
"& your resume is relatively sound and only includes some minor modi&ications, you can probably land
a position with most any &irm. (owever, should your resume contain more &iction than &act, you may
want to restrict your job search to the smaller companies. 2mall &amily owned out&its do the least
checking o& all. The pay and bene&its may not be the best, but they might be just the ticket i& you need
employment &ast and have a resume that may not withstand the scrutiny a larger company with more
resources might apply.
%hat i& your background checks out just &ine (ave you overcome all o& the hiring hurdles 8on>t get
too e/cited yet. ?any companies are delving even &urther these days. Review=et Hwww.reviewnet.net$
is a company thriving by testing applicants virtually Hby computer$ to detect above average or less than
virtual skills. The company>s tests give applicants the ability to take the "nternetIbased ,uiD &rom a
computer at home or at the potential employer>s site. The test is timed, and an evaluation lets the
person giving the test know how much time it took the test taker to complete the multiple answer ,uiD.
Then Review=et gives the company that is administering the test all answers that are correct or nearly
correct. Even a non technical person has the ability to hire ,uali&ied applicants or dis,uali&y those who
don>t make the grade. Review=et also has a phone service where a ,uali&ied tester Hwho is a specialist
in that particular technology$ will call an applicant and give the oral part o& the test. This means that
you>d 7ETTER have your in&ormation &resh in your mind and make sure your have some good
re&erence books and cheat sheets near you that detail key terms, phrases, de&initions and anything else
that may assist you in getting through the process.
1-) .reaing airigh references
6s many as oneIthird o& all resume writers e/aggerate their accomplishments, while up to #3 percent
Gseriously misrepresentG their background or work histories. H2ourceE 2urveys by Edward 6ndler,
author o& GThe 4omplete Re&erence 4hecking (andbookG$
(ow do (R ?anagers 4heck the Truth in your Resume 6 survey by the =ew ;ork Times Aob ?arket
research team identi&ied the &ollowing techni,ues used by hiring managers to veri&y job candidates'
claims made on their resumesE
4hecking o& re&erences *.:
Evaluating candidates during the interview process )3:
4hecking o& past employersNschools listed on resumes #.:
6sking ,uestions o& candidates to see how speci&ic their answers are +:
Evaluating new employees once they are on the job *:
Re,uiring samples o& candidates' work ':
Re,uiring candidates to complete tests during the hiring process ':
;ou must plan on each o& your re&erences being contacted by your prospective employer. "n order to be
more convincing you should include at least one &ormer supervisor, one peer, and one customer or
client. ?ake sure you know EO64T5; what each re&erence will say during the call. ;ou can>t a&&ord
to be blindIsided by them saying something you weren>t prepared &or. "& you can>t &ind people willing
to lie on your behal&, then at least call each re&erence you have listed yoursel& to &ind out what is being
said about you. 6t the end o& each call, ask the re&erence to recommend someone else to contact. ;ou
can>t a&&ord to let any Lwild cardM re&erences to be thrown into the mi/. 6gain, you must cover 655
angles.
%hen per&orming your own re&erence checks, avoid asking ,uestions that re,uire a yes or no answer.
9penIended ,uestions such as the &ollowing will reveal patterns in how your per&ormance is being
ratedE
F %hat level o& management is the candidate capable o& attaining
F %hich pro&essional and personal skills will the candidate need &or your position
F %hat are the candidate>s management style, strengths and weaknesses
F %hat is the candidate's reputation with his or her superiors, peers, subordinates and clients
F 8oes the candidate communicate well both orally and in writing
F %hat are the candidate>s problem solving, planning and implementation skills
F %hat is a &air description o& the candidates> work ethic
F (ow will the candidate handle the transition to a new job, company, or location
F (ow does the candidate per&orm under stress
5egally (R can only ask a &ew basic thingsE
F 4on&irmation o& employmentE L;es, he worked &or us.M
F 8ates o& EmploymentE (e worked &or us &rom Hstart date$ to Hend date$
F The job title o& the most recent position held.
F %ould you rehire this person "& they answer noI you>re done@
?any L&actsM o& your resume can be easily checkedE
F 8ates I 7ackground checks easily con&irm your &irst and last date worked, as well as your position,
your salary and even your bonus.
F Responsibilities I %ere you really a manager 8id you coordinate research projects, or just
participate in them FactIcheckers will know.
F Education I Education veri&ication agencies can con&irm within minutes your college, degree,
gradeIpoint average and even attendance.
F 6dditional 6ctivities I 6 simple phone call or %eb search can easily con&irm whether an
organiDation e/ists, and whether you GvolunteeredG there.
8ue to the oppressive legal environment in which we live, this is where most re&erences will end.
There>s one more bit o& in&ormation an astute caller may re,uest howeverUyour rehire status. 8id you
leave the &irm on good terms U positive enough that they would consider hiring you back at some point
in the &uture 6bout hal& o& the &irms we interviewed said they would cooperate and provide this
additional piece o& in&ormation. Given the inability o& the caller to get the &ull story, i& the rehire status
comes back negative, he>ll understandably assume the worst. 6s a result, a negative rehire status is
there&ore the proverbial Gkiss o& deathG. This e/plains why it>s so important to con&irm your rehire
status be&ore you leave an employer.
2ince anyone interested in hiring you can and will be able to obtain your dates o& employment and job
title, this leaves a great deal o& room &or e/aggeration or, i& necessary, even outright &abrication. The
speci&ic job duties or responsibilities can be rather &reely e/panded as can your &ormer salary. ;ou
might also get away with some minor e/tension o& the period o& employment should you wish to cover
up a gap in your employment history.
"& you>re not sure e/actly how one o& your &ormer employers will respond to a re&erence call U call
them yoursel&@ !ose as a hiring manager, and ask &or a re&erence on yoursel& and see what they say.
%hatever they say, probe them and ask &or more in&ormation. "& they sing your praises or at least give
you the standard positive re&erence, you>re all set. =evertheless should they say anything that is at all
negative, promptly write the personnel director a personal letter. 2ay that you were disappointed to
learn that they had given out a slanderous re&erence that recently cost you a lucrative position. 2tate
openly that you>re consulting with legal counsel and in&er that any &urther negative comments will
result in immediate legal action. "t>s standard procedure in most personnel departments to place a copy
o& such a letter right on top o& your &ile so that anyone pulling the &ile in the &uture will immediately be
con&ronted with your letter and will be &orced to avoid any negative comments.
"n addition, less background checking is being done. 4orporations are now re,uired by &ederal law to
use e/actly the same background checks on all applicants. H"n the past, it was common practice to
un&airly scrutiniDe minority applicants$ 4hecking all applicants is rather e/pensive these days hence the
overall reduction in investigations.
Every company " interviewed reported that, according to wellIestablished written rules, they are
re,uired to per&orm mandatory employment re&erence checks on every single applicant. (owever,
when " discussed the subject with a doDen hiring managers in a bar a&ter a &ew drinks, an entirely
di&&erent story emerged. Every one o& them admitted that checks are o&ten either skipped or only
partially completed. Today>s managers live in a very rushed environment so many managers simply
can>t &ind the time to place the repeated phone calls and mail out the re&erence re,uests. They also
know that should they make a mistake during a check it could get them into hot water so they>re more
than a little intimidated. Then, there>s that certain macho attitude that they, and they alone, can
con&idently e/tract the best employee &rom a crowd by Ggut &eelG because they>re such a Ggood judge o&
characterG and so have no need &or &urther data. 2everal managers with e/tensive hiring e/perience
admitted that they had yet to per&orm their &irst re&erence check@ Aust be aware that &or whatever reason,
many checks are never made.
"& you chose to include career accomplishments on your resume, they must be speci&ic. Jague or
ine/act accomplishments are worthless and will certainly lead to a detailed discussion. 7e care&ul with
accomplishments, as you must be prepared to answer detailed ,uestions.
2hould you indicate that your last employer is a &irm right down the road, it>s very likely that a
prospective employer will go ahead with a check. 7ut by simply listing a &irm in another state, you
somewhat reduce the odds that a prospective employer will either actually go ahead with the check or
get the re&erence check back Hvia mail$ in time to be used in making a decision regarding a job o&&er.
"& you provide a slightly altered address &or your &ormer employer, the mail may go astray. "& the
address is a !9 7o/, simply switch two digits o& the !9 7o/ number. 9therwise, you might try
incorrectly abbreviating the town name and switching two digits o& the Dip code. This may only serve
to delay the arrival o& a re&erence letter, but there>s always the chance that they won>t even bother to
&ollow up with a second attempt.
The most common lies were claiming &alse degrees, honorariums and disguising periods between jobs
by stretching the dates. G"t's hard to believe in this day and age when people can veri&y in&ormation on
you in seconds that people still do it,G said one (R ?anager " spoke with. G6nd it's e,ually hard to
believe in this day and age that employers don't use resources readily available to screen applicants
more care&ully.G
6&ter a hire, most employers won't have the time to look through resumes to do re&erence checks all
over again. 2uch a review might be triggered i& an employee isn't working up to the level the resume
suggests.
Csing ?ailI8rops and !9 7o/es &or Re&erence 4hecks I 6nother way to create nearly uncheckable
re&erences &rom large companies is to use mail dropTsuch as a rental bo/ at a ?ail 7o/es Etc.Tthat
accepts mail addressed to massive organiDations. 6TVT is a &avorite because it is so large,
decentraliDed, and hard to track down. 6 cheat gives a recruiter the mail drop and the name and number
o& a &ictitious supervisor. "& the recruiter calls the given re&erence, a GsecretaryG he>s set up Ha &riend
who can act on the phone$ says the company>s policy is to respond by letter only. ?ail sent to the
&ictitious supervisor is &orwarded to the cheater, who then writes his own recommendation. !eople
believe paper documentation. The 2ociety &or (uman Resource ?anagement study &ound that only )3
percent o& all people hiring veri&y the authenticity o& re&erences in letters provided by candidates.
11) /ying a he iner!iew and geing away wih i
6re There Telltale 2igns 2ome lies are &airly easy to detect. 6t the height o& the war in "ra,, &or
e/ample, a TJ news account showed an "ra,i spokesman proclaiming that there were Lno 6merican
in&idels in the city o& 7aghdadM just as C.2. tanks drove past him.
(owever without such bold physical evidence, it>s hard &or your interviewer to spot many lies. "n &act,
many e/perts say it can be a delusion &or an interviewer to think lying can be detected in a person>s
mannerisms. Fidgeting, stuttering or avoiding eye contact could simply be symptoms o& nervousness
about the interview rather than indicators o& intent to deceive. Remember this when you go in &or your
interview.
!racticed liars o&ten show no such signs. LReally good liars o&ten behave in the opposite way and
appear unnaturally calm and make &ewer gestures with their body,M says 8aniel R. Fisher, a
psychologist who heads the assessment practice &or %orklab 4onsulting 554, a =ew ;orkIbased
managementIconsulting &irm. L!eople who are lying o&ten slow down to think about their answers,
using &ewer gestures and maintaining eye contact as they concentrate on putting together a plausible
&alsehood.M
2ome interviewees tell lies that they have ingrained in their li&e storyTidentities and legends o& their
own creationTand thus aren>t &abricating on the spot, says Rosen. LThey put it on their resume and
talk about it and tell their &riends about it, and it becomes part o& their personality, because they>ve told
it so o&ten,M he says. LTo them, it>s second natureTthey>re not sitting there making it up.M The point o&
this is that you ?C2T make sure you rehearse and rehearse your story just as i& an actor memoriDes
their lines until it becomes second nature.
2tudies by !aul Ekman, a psychology pro&essor in the 8epartment o& !sychiatry at the Cniversity o&
4ali&ornia ?edical 2chool in 2an Francisco, have repeatedly shown that people are poor intuitive
judges o& truth and deception. L?ost people cannot tell &rom demeanor whether someone is lying or
telling the truthTbut most people think they can,M say Ekman, author o& #) books, including Telling
5ies H%.%. =orton, '33#$. 9ver the years Ekman has tested about +,333 peopleTamong them college
students, police o&&icers, judges, lawyers, psychiatrists, and agents o& the F7", the 4"6 and the 8rug
En&orcement 6dministrationTto determine i& they can tell i& someone is lying. (e has &ound, he says,
that L1- percent o& them are close to chanceTthey>d do just as well &lipping a coin.M <nowing this
puts you in the power position when you go in &or an interview. Especially i& you think you>re a bad
liar. Guess what 6s long as your rehearsed your story and know it inside and out you>re going to
easily &ool your interviewerHs$.
"& a prospective employer is worried that you didn't actually earn the degree you say you did they will
ask you probing ,uestions. "n order to veri&y someone actually attended a particular school, they will
most likely ask you ,uestions that only someone who went to the school would know.G
"& they>re unsure you actually possess the skills and credentials re&lected in your resume, they will ask
you ,uestions relating to those skills. "& the job re,uires technical knowledge, such as accounting or
computer skills, be sure that you 46= answer those ,uestions no matter how technical or detailed they
might be.
The technical part o& the interview is so important &or you to ace. "& you can>t answer technical
,uestions, then you're done. 7e prepared to answer ,uestions such as how you would handle a
particular problem, or ,uestions regarding particular projects you worked on in the past can help
establish i& you>re right &or the job.
(R people are trained to look &or lies, e/aggerations and inconsistencies. 2o rehearse as many times as
necessary be&ore your interview so your story is airtight. 7elow are the top eight list o& suspicious
behavior (R people look &or during an interview as signs that you>re lyingE
#. 6 change in the voices pitch.
'. 6 change in the rate o& speech.
). 6 sudden increase in the number o& GumsG and Gahs.G
*. 6 change in eye contact. =ormally, one makes eye contact oneI,uarter to oneIhal& o& the time. "&
suddenly, at the convenient moment to lie, he's staring at you or looking away, beware.
-. Turning his body away &rom you, even i& just slightly.
+. 2uddenly being able to see the white on the top and bottom o& a person's eyes, not just the sides.
.. 6 hand reaching, even i& momentarily, to cover part o& the &ace, especially the mouth.
0. =ervous movement o& &eet or legs.
7y themselves, each o& these behaviors can just be signs o& stress, or even a person's natural
mannerisms. 9ne can occur by chance, but when two or more o& these behaviors suddenly appear at a
moment when lying could be e/pedient. For e/ample, when you ask a salesman how reliable that used
car is, it suggests he's lying. 9& course, in order to notice a change, you need a baseline. 2o you must
&irst watch the person when talking about innocuous issues.
6 mi/ed signal
6lso look &or mi/ed signals. %hen someone's telling the truth, her words, her &ace and her body
language are all congruent. For e/ample, i& a person is honestly saying that she likes you, her &ace is
usually rela/ed, o&&ering a gentle smile and warm eyes. (er body is calm and open. 7ut when she's
lying, something is usually inconsistent. "n the most obvious case, she may be saying she likes you, but
she's not smiling. 2he may even have a clenched &ist. 7etter liars can muster a smile, but it doesn't look
natural. Even better liars can put on a convincing smile, but their eyes aren't smiling. 2till better liars
can control their entire &ace, but their bodies seem closed or cold. 5ook &or mismatches between words
and body language.
%hen you've gotten a signal II a change in body language or a mi/ed signal that the person may be
lying II ask &or more in&ormation about the same topic. 6re those same lying signs apparent That can
con&irm your suspicion. 9& course, there's no &oolproo& way to detect lying. 2ome people are terri&ic at
covering themselves up, especially i& they are naturally emotionally &lat or have practiced their lying
skills over many years II certain political leaders come to mind. 7ut i& you look &or behavior changes
and mi/ed signals at lyingIe/pedient moments, you will improve your 72 detector. ?ake sure you>re
aware o& how you carry yoursel& and what your body language conveys.
Employment history
4hecking re&erences can help &ill in any gaps or date discrepancies &ound in your employment history.
Even though many employers are &ear&ul o& giving out too much in&ormation, most will veri&y the dates
you worked &or them.
!rospective employers think that by doing a good job o& checking re&erences, they think that they>ll be
able to veri&y i& you>re telling the truth about your employment history..
!rospective employers thing that it>s a good idea to have more than one person interview a candidate.
6&terwards, everyone who interviewed you will get together and compare notes to &ind inconsistencies.
For this reason make sure you have your story down per&ectly. 6ny misstep here and you>re done@
The Aob 6pplication
?any times, a prospective employer will have you provide a resume 6=8 &ill out a job application in
order to try to trip you up. Csually the application will contain a statement that points out the e/istence
o& any untruth&ul in&ormation may lead to your termination i& discovered. ?ake absolutely sure that
your resume and application synch up per&ectly.
Remember, in today's economic climate, hiring and retaining the best employees is a top priority.
4ompanies take this process very, very seriously.
F 7e prepared to provide several re&erences. They will use this to check on your employment history.
F They will contact all previous employers that you put down so make sure you>re airtight.
F 7e prepared to be interviewed by more then one person
F 7e prepared to answer ,uestions that directly relate to the job.
F 7e prepared to complete a job application, and make sure you understand that giving &alse
in&ormation on the application is grounds &or termination.
4hances are, your ne/t resume submission will be checked and crossIchecked via your 2ocial 2ecurity
record Hwhich gives the e/act dates that employee contributions begin and end at every single company
you>ve ever worked &or$. ;our police record Hor lack o& one$ and a complete rundown o& your credit
history Hincluding monthly payments$ will be reviewed. There will also be a thorough check into your
re&erences Hmaking sure the people you use as re&erences actually have the job titles they claim$ and an
inIdepth look at your educational background.
7e&ore starting your job search, you may want to stop o&& at www.,space.com and instantly check your
credit rating at all three o& the major agencies. Jiewing your results be&ore your potential employer
does may be worth your time and money.
12) Wha if you ge caugh?
%hat happens i& someone is hired and then &ound to have padded hisNher resume "t seems that +0: o&
larger &irms H#33 or more employees$ and -3: o& smaller &irms Hless than #33 employees$ have
policies to address the situation. ?ost o&ten the policy is to terminate the employment H.1:$.
8isciplining the employee H.:$ and an undetermined action depending upon what was padded H-:$
are distant second and third choice actions. 5ying on your resume may leave you out o& luck i& you
later want to sue your employer &or wrong&ul termination or discrimination.
"n these times o& tight budgets, most employers are cutting back on background investigations. ?any
employers have replaced systematic background checks with spotIchecks that only check a &raction o&
the in&ormation on your resumeNemployment application. 6nd then they act so amaDed when someone
slips something past them.
6lways remember how to smoothly back out should things go awry. 4hances are that i& a prospective
employer smells a rat, he>ll simply stop calling. 7ut i& he should call and con&ront you with ,uestions
you>d rather not discuss, immediately in&orm him that you>d like to provide him with an answer but
un&ortunately you>ve just accepted a position with another company. Aust back out as grace&ully as
possible. There are too many less care&ul &irms out there to have to deal with di&&icult ,uestions.
The employer can use a legal tactic called the Ga&terIac,uired evidenceG theory to argue that negative
in&ormation the employer discovered a&ter the employee was hired should limit the employee's ability
to make claims against the employer. 4onduct by an employee that has been held su&&iciently serious to
be admitted as a&terIac,uired evidence has includedE
F &ailing to list a previous employer on a resume
F &ailing to admit being terminated &or cheating on timeIcards
F &ailing to reveal a prior conviction &or a &elony
F lying about education and e/perience on a job application, and
F &abricating a college degree during an interview.
"& you did lie on your job application or resume, however, you may not be completely out o& luck. ;our
employer can use the misin&ormation as a de&ense only i& it was truly related to your job duties or
per&ormance. The employer must be able to show that you would have been &ired II or not hired in the
&irst placeIIi& he or she had known the truth. !roving this type o& secondIguessing may not be easy.
#. ;our potential employers will probably call your previous employers. "t may be just to get
in&ormation &or trans&erring your insurance policy or because the two bosses &eel like schmooDing.
9nce the schmooDing is done, you'll get busted.
'. Even though you're changing jobs, you're probably not changing industries. 4ompanies in the same
industry o&ten attend the same con&erences and conventions, workshops and &und raisers. Employers
o&ten belong to the same pro&essional associations, or have networks that reach out to various other
companies. 9ne o&&hand mention that you were the errand boy, not the 8irector o& 8istribution, and
you'll be cleaning out your desk.
). "& you lied about your school or degree, your company may check your school's alumni list. 9r
someone at your new company will really be alum, and they're going to bust you.
*. "& you get really creative and invent previous e/perience or employers, modern day in&ormation
retrieval networks, web browsers or the 5e/isN=e/is system make discrediting and humiliating you
,uick, easy, and cost e&&ective.
-. 5ie about the languages you speak, or e/aggerate your pro&iciency and you will be asked to utter a
&ew words in that tongue. 2ometimes interviewers will conduct part or all o& an interview in the
language you claim to know, especially i& it is directly related to the position. ;our monkeyIlike
gibberish will accompany you out the door.
!eople who don't have knowledge or e/perience will give vague answers. They won't be able to
provide technical e/amples or detail. That's when most (R ?anagers will politely cut short the
interview and dismisses the candidate.
"T pro&essionals who submit resumes electronically to the city o& 9rlando, Fla., still &ill out an
application onIsite, says Aohn ?atelski, assistant director o& technology management &or the city. G"
don't care i& all the in&ormation is in the resume,G ?atelski says. 8uring the interview, he compares the
resume with the application and asks ,uestions to see i& the candidate's oral e/planation o& his
credentials matches the written version.
(ow They 2pot a Fake
?any resumes are care&ully written to conceal that the individual does not have work e/perience in the
Cnited 2tates or is not authoriDed to work in the C.2 6 number o& people &ashion their resumes so that
internships, school projects and volunteer Wwork are presented asX actual work e/perience. 9ther &lags
are gaps in employment history, in&lated salary histories and overstated e/perience. 6nd although Gwe
rarely see someone W&alsi&yX certi&ication, we do see premature postings o& that certi&ication,G says
6dam 2handrow, senior technical recruiter at ?anpower Technical in 4ypress, 4ali&.
"ronically, even though electronic resumes may be easier to rig, some recruiters pre&er them because
they are easier to process and track. Electronic resumes also distinguish the players &rom the wannaI
bes. G"t's highly improbable that we would hire &rom a resume sent by &a/ or regular mail,G %onder
says. G6 &a/ tells us the candidate doesn't have the technical skills &or the job. ?ailed resumes are the
last candidates to get jobs.G
2avvy jobIseekers load their resumes with keywords designed to get them through the computeriDed
screening process. The phrases 26! RN), Aava or %indows =T usually trigger a response. ;et
recruiters and hiring managers sometimes end up interviewing a person with no handsIon knowledge o&
highIdemand applications
=ow this person is trying to get the job done, but isn't delivering at the speed e/pected &or the wage
being paid. "n this instance, i& the resume had been time stamped and stored in a central repository, it
would have been obvious that there was no Aava e/pertise, but strong 4RR e/pertise. The hiring
company could then have decided to provide the overt training &or the individual, but not at the B#'-Nhr
&ee, but at say a more reasonable B03 per hour &ee.
=ow that you>ve had a chance to go through this once., take another hard look at your resume and see
what places you can tune up. 8ouble check to make sure once you>ve gone through it that it &lows and
everything makes sense. Then once you think you>re ready send it o&& and go &or it.

0ppendices
0) Resume ,asics 1 how to write a job winning resume that puts yours on top
?any people would love to get a better job. 6nd most o& these same people have the proper training
and skills to achieve this goal. Cn&ortunately, so many job hunters have very poor communication
skills. They are unable to clearly tell potential employers about their job ,uali&ications. "n short, they
do not have good job seeking skills. "n many cases, this prevents them &rom getting a high paying job
that they could easily do. 9&ten, the job will go to someone who is less skilled but who has written an
eyeIcatching resume.
9&ten, job seekers have a &ew mistaken opinions about potential employers. They believe that
employers are able to easily separate the ,uali&ied job applicants &rom the less ,uali&ied applicants. 7ut
this is likely not true. 2ometimes there are &rom )3 to )33 resumes &or the same job. 2o the interviewer
&irst does a &ast screening o& all the resumes to eliminate as many as possible. The GgoodG resumes
usually make it through the screening process. ?any times the best job candidate is screened out due to
a poor resume.
"n today's business world there is o&ten many ,uali&ied applicants applying &or the same job. %hat i&,
out o& all o& those who apply, one job seeker turns in a skill&ul resume %ho do you think stands the
best chance o& getting the job "t's the one with the GbestG resume, o& course. This is so o&ten true even
through some o& the other applicants may be better ,uali&ied &or the job. "n order to get a good job you
must communicate to the employer that you are ready, willing, and able to do the job. 2o i& you are
capable o& producing a top notch job resume, you de&initely increase your chances o& getting a better
job.
General guidelines
Jirtually every potential employer will want to see a resume &rom you. The resume will determine who
gets a job interview. ;our resume is a miniIstatement about yoursel&. 6&ter reading your resume the
employer should have a better G&eelG &or you as a person and as a potential employer. "t serves to get
ac,uainted with the employer so that they can decide i& they want to know more about you.
The resume is the &irst step, your introduction to an employer. First impressions really do count. "& you
make a poor &irst impression, you'll never get to step twoII the job interview. To the purpose o& your
resume is to make a good &irst impression. "n e&&ect, your resume should tell the employer that you
have good abilities and are truly interested in working. This report will help you make that good &irst
impression. 6nd it could very well help you to get the better job you're looking &or.
6ll good resumes &ollow the same general basic guidelines. %hile there is some &le/ibility in these
guidelines, you don't want to stray too &ar &rom them. ;ou want a resume that is bold, e/citing, and
enticing. 7ut not too much so. ;ou also want a resume that is somewhat conservative. "n other words,
it must be bold. =ot &lashy. ;ou must show that you have con&idence in your abilities, but not sound
like a braggart. ;ou must sound eager to do the job, but not desperate. 2o there is a &ine line that you
must walk in order to produce the best possible resume.
;ou want to use intelligent language. (owever, you don't want to try and impress the employer with
long, &lowery, or uncommon words or phrases. Cse everyday language whenever possible. 9& course, i&
you are applying &or a highly technical position, it's acceptable to use some o& the special terms used in
that particular pro&ession. 7ut as a rule you should keep it simple and straight to the point.
The word resume comes &rom the French word GresumerG which means to summariDe. 2o the e/act
purpose o& a resume is to summariDe your e/perience, knowledge, and accomplishments. There&ore,
you must avoid being too wordy. 2ay e/actly what you mean in the least number o& words possible.
"t's important to include all o& the basic in&ormation on your resume. 7ut, what is also important, is the
way you say it. 8on't use dull, li&eless statements. "nstead use action words. These words give the
correct impression that you have been responsible &or do di&&erent kinds o& jobs tasks. "n other words,
you weren't just a &ollower. 9& course, you should always be truth&ul. 8on't try to oversell yoursel& by
claiming you did things that you didn't do. (ere are some typical action wordsE
6ccelerated, achieved, advised, approved, assisted, built, calculated, completed, conceived, controlled,
coordinated, created, decreased, de&ined, designed, developed, directed, earned, edited, engineered,
evaluated, &ound, generated, implemented, improved, invented, managed, operated, organiDed, planned,
proved, revised, scheduled, tested, trained, veri&ied, wrote.
The length o& your resume is important. Resumes should be &rom # to ) pages long. 8on't be tempted to
make your resume longer than ) pages, even i& you have a lot to tell. Remember, a resume is supposed
to be a summary. 6 resume that is too long simply will bore the reader. There will be so much material
that nothing will stand out and be remembered.
Resume 2tyles
There are several styles o& resumes along with numerous variations. ;our e/perience and the kind o&
job you are applying &or will help to determine the style o& resume you use. The two basic styles areE
4hronological Resumes and Functional 2kills resumes. 2ome o& the variations include the main themes
o& business, academic, general, student, standard, pro&essional, or engineering.
6 4hronological Resume lists work e/perience in reverse chronological order Hthe most recent
e/perience &irst$. "t includes some descriptive te/t about each position, usually described in about one
paragraph. This type o& resume o&&ers several advantagesE it is widely accepted, they are easy to read,
and they show a clear pattern o& your development. The disadvantages are that it doesn't highlight your
major accomplishmentHs$ or e&&ectively show your other skills.
6 Functional 2kills Resume highlights your skills and accomplishments rather than providing a
chronological record o& your job history. ;our accomplishments and skills are listed at the beginning.
;our job history is listed at the end o& the resume. This type o& resume allows you to call attention to
your achievements. The major disadvantage is that employers may &ind it di&&icult to &ollow your work
e/perience.
?any people discover that a combination o& these two kinds o& resumes is the best way to go. ;ou may
want to try several di&&erent types o& combinations be&ore settling upon a &inal design.
Topics that your resume should cover
#. Aob 9bjective II lets the employer know that you are interested in a speci&ic type o& work. This can
be done in ' or ) sentences.
E/ampleE work in an analytical chemistry laboratory that &ocuses on environmental samples. 9versee
and coordinate the activities o& other lab technicians.
'. 2ummary o& Quali&ications II is a short paragraph that summariDes your e/perience and skills.
E/ampleE " have 0 years e/perience working on all p samples &or metals 4. Csed 45"! and 2%0*+
methods phases o& analytical chemistry. "ncluding work with a wide variety o& instruments and
computers. %as secondIinIcommand o& a lab with 0 technicians.
). !ro&essional 2kills II is the section where you give speci&ic details about your ,uali&ications.
E/ampleE
"=2TRC?E=T2 9!ER6TE8
6. 6tomic 6bsorption 2pectrometer
7. ?icrowave 8igestion 2ystem
4. !olarograph
8. 5aser Fluorimeter
E. "7? 4omputers
68?"="2TR6T"9=
6. 2upervised eight technicians when the 8epartment head was absent.
6=65;2"2
6. %aste oils &or metals
7. %ater and soil
*. %ork E/perience II in this section you give a one paragraph summary &or each o& your previous
jobs. This should include starting and ending date, reason &or leaving, job title and duties, and any
special accomplishments &or each o& the jobs.
-. Education II gives a summary o& all schools attended, degrees earned, and special seminars or
training courses that you have attended.
+. (onors and 6wards II it's a good idea to list any special awards you have received.
.. !ersonal II in&ormation about your hobbies and activities should be included.
0. 9thers II pro&essional organiDations that you belong to, computer or programming skills, articles or
books published.
1. Re&erences II you can state something like, Gre&erences available upon re,uest,G or list at least ) on
your resume.
9ptional 8ata
There is a variety o& personal data that may be somewhat controversial i& included in your resume. "n
the past it was acceptable to include all kinds o& personal data, but times and laws have changed.
6&&irmative 6ction laws have made it illegal to discriminate based on such things as age, se/, marital
status, race, religion, and so &orth. There&ore, most e/perts recommend against placing this kind o&
personal data into your resume.
;our salary re,uirements should not be listed in the resume, i& you can avoid it. The reason is that i&
you put too low o& a salary, you might be paid less than the real value o& the job. "& you put down a
&igure that's too high, you may not get considered &or the job. "& an employer likes you, it may be
possible to negotiate a higher salary during the interview stage.
6nother thing that your resume doesn't need is your photograph. !otential employers can decide i& they
are interested in you a&ter reading your resume. They can see what you look like during the interview.
Resume 6ppearance
The overall appearance o& your resume is also important. 6 sloppy looking resume will greatly lessen
your chance o& getting a job interview. The &irst thing that an employer, or personnel manager,
evaluating your resume will notice is its appearance. There are several di&&erent things that can be
easily done to increase the overall appearance o& your resume.
The &irst o& these appearance &actors is the paper that your resume is printed on. There are many
di&&erent kinds o& paper other than regular typing paper. ;ou could make an improvement by using a
colored paper. " suggest a subdued color like brown, o&&Iwhite, or gray. =e/t, you could use a better
grade o& paper. Go to a local o&&ice supply store and e/amine the di&&erent types o& writing paper.
;ou'll notice some big di&&erences. !ick out a nice looking, more e/pensive grade o& paper &or your
resume.
The ne/t thing to consider is the type ,uality. "t's very important that your printed resume looks good.
This means clean, crisp, and sharp looking letters. 6 good way to produce a top looking resume is by
having it typeset. 6 high ,uality laser printer. 5aser printers can produce a good grade o& document.
;ou can use the typeset master copy o& your resume to make more copies, but be certain that you use a
top notch copying machine. 9therwise, you'll still end up with poor looking resumes.
6 third aspect o& your resume's appearance is more subjective. "t takes into account such things as the
letter spacing, how each section is arranged, and it's overall appearance. 2ome resumes simply look
better because o& the way they have been designed. 6t the end o& this report, you'll see an e/ample o& a
properly prepared resume.
=ever overcrowd the resume. 5eave some Gwhite spaceG so that important points can appear to pop out.
=ever submit a resume with handwritten corrections. ;ou can highlight sections o& a resume by using a
di&&erent type&ace or siDe or by using Gbullets.G "& possible, use larger letters &or the headings used in
the separate sections o& the resume.
=ever try to be too &ancy by using wild colors, cute graphics, and so &orth. 8on't be overly creative. 6
simple, straight&orward, &actual resume will do nicely. ?ake it stand out, but stay conservative.
6nother phase o& your resume's appearance is its spelling, grammar, punctuation, and consistent
&ormatting. ?ake sure there are none o& these errors@ ?istakes will create the wrong image.
2ee that all o& your &acts are correct. 8on't say you attended ) years o& college, but only show two years
worth o& grades. !otential employers will note all inaccuracies and wonder why they appear in your
resume.
!utting it all together
6s you can see, a resume is really a very simple document. "t is not that di&&icult to produce a good
resume, i& you &ollow the simple steps outlined in this reportIIby dividing it into sections it becomes a
much easier job. These di&&erent sections also help you to stay organiDed. "& you have worked on a
special project or had a lo&ty responsibility on a previous job, you may want to include that in a section
all by itsel&.
6nother good way to get &amiliar with proper resume writing techni,ues is to review a good resume.
2ee the e/ample below. ;ou can use it as a model. Then produce several di&&erent resumes &or yoursel&
until you &ind the best possible combinations &or your speci&ic skills. ;ou may also want to have a
&riend to read your resume and point out any problems.
4. 2nco!ering 3o,s
?any people do not have good job hunting skills. They are not e/perts at locating job openings &or
which they may be ,uali&ied. (ere are some ideas to help you uncover those jobs.
=E%2!6!ER 682 II usually draw the greatest number o& applicants, so you'll end up with a lot o&
competition. "& you have no geographic restrictions, you may want to check out o& state newspapers.
Find a way to make your resume stand out so that it isn't lost among the many applicants. (ere are a
couple o& ideasE
H#$ 2end a customiDed cover letter with your resume.
H'$ 4all be&ore you send the resume in. "& possible, talk to the person who will be doing the interview or
who you'll be working &or. "& this isn't possible, talk to the personnel director about the job and let them
know that your resume is coming. This will help them to remember your name and may help you get
through the resume screening process.
!R"J6TE E?!59;?E=T 6GE=4"E2 II these are agencies that try to match employees and
employers. These agencies vary in the way they work. 2ome can be very help&ul. 9thers are somewhat
unscrupulous. ;our best chance is to go with an agency that specialiDes in your &ield. 7eware o&
agencies that continually run the same ad because, o&ten, they are just trying to build a list o&
candidates. " recommend that you only use agencies that don't re,uire you to pay a &ee.
TR68E A9CR=652 6=8 !ER"98"4652 II 6re o&ten the best places to look. This is one o& the
primary means o& job advertisement &or some types o& pro&essions. E/ampleE The magaDine
Environmental 2cience continually carries ads &or environmental pro&essionals.
9ther good places to look includeE trade shows and pro&essional conventions, personnel o&&ices, college
placement o&&ices, &riends you have that are in the same pro&ession as you. 6nother method is to simply
go through the yellow pages and look &or companies which may need a person with your skills. Then
contact these companies by phone and &ollowIup by sending in your resume.
Aob seeking is a skill that re,uires persistence. ;ou must not become discouraged. <eep making plenty
o& contacts. 2ooner or later, you'll &ind the job that's right &or you.
4$ .o!er leer ,asics I 6 good cover letter helps you stand out &rom the crowd.
The cover letter grabs your prospective employer's attention. This is also where you can make it
obvious to them why you are a per&ect &it &or the job. 9&ten times (R ?anagers used cover letter as a
way to screen people out. The more you tailor your cover letter to the job, the higher your chances are
o& getting an interview with the company. Generic cover letters are a waste o& your time and the
employer>s time.
"& the job asks &or three years o& e/perience and on your cover letter you put down you have three years
e/perience. ?ake sure that your resume re&lects those three years o& e/perience.
"& in the cover letter you write how badly you want to have this kind o& job, in this kind industry, make
sure that your resume shows any previous jobs, courses, or education that would back at your claim.
8on't write that this is the job you've always been looking &or when there's nothing in your resume to
back that up. "& in your cover letter you say that you've always want to be a manager in a retail
company, but all your e/perience is in sales &or industrial companies you're cover letter will sound very
hollow.
8$ 'ner!iew ,asics
;our resume I "& you don't have a resume, take instead your school records, 2ocial 2ecurity card, work
records, licenses, military records, dates o& employment and names o& your employers.
;our re&erences I "t is also important to create a list o& re&erences. 7e prepared to give an employer the
names and addresses o& three people who are &amiliar with you andNor your work. ;ou should ask your
re&erences &or the use o& their names in advance. "& you think it appropriate, ask a pro&essional &riend or
&ormer employer to write you a letter o& re&erence, and include it with your resume.
%ork samples I "& your work is the type o& work you can show, take samples o& what you have done in
the past.
<now the company and the employer I 5earn all you can about the company that is interviewing you.
Go to the library or your 4hamber o& 4ommerce to &ind out all you can about it. Try to &ind out e/actly
what they do and what they have in store &or you as &ar as jobs are concerned. Find out whom you will
be working &or. The person you will be working &or will be very in&luential in your li&e. ?ake sure you
really want to work &or this person. "& your &uture boss doesn't tell you about himsel& at the interview,
don't ask.
<now how much you should earn I <now how much you should earn with your talents and skills.
?ake your estimate a little higher so the company bene&its when they bid you down. 8on't go too high
or you won't get the job. <now appro/imately what the salary scale is &or the job and be ready to
negotiate the salary.
<now yoursel& I "t is important that you know yoursel&. Evaluate what you can o&&er this company,
whether it is education, training or special skills. 6lways tell them what you can do, not what you can't
do. <now e/actly what type o& job you are applying &or and what type o& job you want.
<now your interviewer I !repare yoursel& &or the ,uestions &or the ,uestions the interviewer is going to
ask you. ;ou should rehearse answers to the most commonly asked ,uestions. (ave some one ask you
these ,uestions to practice your answersE
F %hy do you want to work here
F (ow long do you want to stay with this company
F %hy did you leave your last job
F Tell me about yoursel&.
F %hy aren't you working now
F (ow long do you think you would stay in this present job without a promotion
F %hy should we hire you
F %hat is your greatest strengthNweakness
F %hat did you likeNdislike about your last job
F (ow much did you earn
F (ow much do you want to earn
F %hy do you think you can do this job without e/perience
;our time I ?ake sure you are at least #3 minutes early &or the scheduled appointment. 8on't come too
early or too late. Give yoursel& enough time to spend with the interviewerIIdon't arrange another
appointment #- minutes a&ter the &irst appointment. ;our time with the interviewer should be
uninterrupted.
;our appearance and dress I 8on't wear too casual or too &ormal clothing to the interview. 8ress
conservatively without &lashy colors. 7e well groomed and shave &or your interview. %omen should
make sure thy look very neat. (air should not be in the &ace, it should be up or tied back. ?akeup
should be subtle. The way you look is very important to your interviewer. "& your appearance is bad &or
the interview, that is the impression an employer will have o& your job per&ormance. =eat appearance is
always a must.
%hat to do at the interview I %hen you shake an employer's hand, shake it &irm, solid grip. 8on't shake
his hand passively. 7e businesslike but pleasant and &riendly. 2mile throughout the whole interview.
?ake sure your smile does not look &ake. Good eye contact is very important. "& you can't look into his
eyes, look at the bridge o& his nose. This will seem as i& you are looking into his eyes. 2it straight up
but toward the interviewer. This will make it seem as i& you are very interested in what the interviewer
has to say. 8on't smoke or have poor posture during the interview. "& you are under stress, try to act
calm.
%hat to say at the interview I 5et the employer take charge o& the interview. 6nswer his ,uestions
brie&ly but completely. 8on't ramble on about unimportant things and waste his time. 8ogmatic
statements should be avoided. Tell the employer e/actly what you e/pect &rom your
job and &rom him. 6lso tell him e/actly what he can e/pect &rom you. 2tress your ,uali&ications in a
positive, a&&irmative tone. %hen the employer tells you what type o& person is wanted, use this
in&ormation when telling the employer about your ,uali&ications. "t is very important to tell him what
he wants to hear. %hen you tell people what they want to hear, they start to agree with you. 8on't over
do it and e/aggerate with lies. Cse your resume or records to support any claim you make about
yoursel&. "& you don't understand a ,uestion the interviewer asks you, repeat it back to him to see i& you
understand it. Try to see what the interviewer wants to &ind out about you. "& you know what he wants
to &ind out, make you answers &it his needs.
%hat not to say and do at the interview I Talk about previous jobs i& they are in your &avor. 8on't say
anything bad or criticiDe previous employers or &ellow workers. "& you say anything bad about anyone,
your &uture employer can e/pect trouble &rom you. 8on't say anything negative about yoursel&. Try not
to discuss anything personal, &inancial or domestic unless you are speci&ically asked. "& the interviewer
,uestions you at a ,uick pace with con&using ,uestions, he is doing this to put you under stress. 2tay in
control and answer calmly. 8on't be overly impatient when an employer asks you a ,uestion. %ait &or
him to &inish the ,uestion and then answer it completely and in a rela/ed manner. ;ou don't want an
employer to think you are desperate &or the job. 8on't take anyone with you to the interviewIIthis
makes you seem insecure.
6t the end o& the interview I "& the employer does not o&&er you the job at the end o& the interview, ask
him when you will hear &rom him or when you can call to &ind out his decision. "& you are asked to
come back, write down the time and place you are to attend. 6&ter the interview thank the employer &or
spending his time with you. 6sk him i& he knows o& any other company that may need a person with
your ,uali&ications. 6 good practice is to also thank the employer by mail with a Gthank youG letter.
?any applicants don't do this, so this may give you an edge on the job.
"& you are hired at the interview I ?ake sure that you understand what your duties will be. 6 good
understanding o& what your employer e/pects &rom you and what you e/pect &rom your job will
prevent con&licts in the &uture. ?ake sure that you are very clear on both o& them. ;ou should also &ind
out what advancement opportunities are open &or you. Tell the employer what salary you want, but only
bring up money when the employer brings up your salary.
"& you are not o&&ered the job I Tell the interviewer that you really want the job. Follow up with a thank
you letter to the interviewer. Tell the interviewer again in the note that you really want the job. "& you
&orgot to mention something in the interview that you thought was important, don't hesitate to mention
it in the letter. "& the company hasn't contacted you in a week or two, call. "& somebody else is hired &or
the job ask the interviewer i& he has any other openings in his company or i& he can give you any leads.
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