In my experience, when I look at many sales and marketing resumes, I almost alw ays find a section where the

applicant lists his or her skills (or perceived in most cases) in a separate, but bold expertise section usually placed near the to p of the CV. Because many of these individuals have done enough research to know to put the key terms on their resume, naturally, they are charming, quick witte d, energetic and intelligent enough to get past middle management. Sadly enough, in many companies, the reason is that middle management typically can't define these intangible "areas of expertise" themselves. Thus, the applicant scoots pas t having to dig in and define the terms during the interview and gets the offer. However, middle management is the highest level they will ever get by relying s olely on wit and experience. There are two main reasons for this: 1. At good companies, upper management personnel of a mid to large size company are trained on these tactics and know them left and right, up and down. Trying t o slide these skills past C-level executives on your resume without being able t o confidently discuss them in a matter that sounds intelligent and engage in a c onversation of substance is like trying to pass contraband past a group of polic e dogs. 2. The applicant does not know the skills they list. Yes. They know that they ar e crucial and are intelligent enough to decipher that, but they don't learn the foundations and are unable to implement these key points. In business, if you ar e not learning, you are not growing and if you don't have the finer points of bu siness down, your charm and smooth talking will only take you so far. Now, we must define as to what are the typical key points that are falsely repre sented on a resume? 1. Negotiation tactics - I interviewed a young professional the other day who ha d the word "negotiation" under her skill set. She was a little snooty; therefore I decided to do a test. I said, "Oh, I see that you like negotiating, what type s of tactics do you use for contract disputes?" The response was exactly as expected, "Uh, well, sometimes you have to walk away ." What a lot of people don't understand is that to learn true negotiation tacti cs, to become knowledgeable about, requires a lot of reading. It's no secret tha t there are entire classes devoted to the subject it in our nation's law schools . However, to know enough to speak and learn basic negotiation as, eventually yo u dive into psychology, you don't have to look much further than your Barnes and Noble. I began studying negotiation very thoroughly about a year ago and we do get high er fees than our competition receives; I know that for a fact and it happens fre quently. However, would I feel comfortable speaking to an expert on the fact? My comfort level would, depending on the person, be small to mid-level. Honesty and humility are qualities that will serve you well in the workplace and employers are looking for people they can trust who have these qualities. If yo u lie, even a little, on your resume, you ve already betrayed that trust. With the t ough competition in the job market these days, that s enough to knock you out of the running for your dream job. Reference: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-08-06/tech/30050795_1_negotiation-middl e-management-key-points#ixzz1dcCmeMjI http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-08-06/tech/30050795_1_negotiation-middl e-management-key-points