Padding one’s resume

I received an interesting email today. Someone asked me whether it was all right to pad his resume.

In case you don’t know what this means, it means making a lie in your resume. Adding qualifications or experience or skills which you do not have.

At one time or another, some people may have felt the need to make up some small lies to put into their resume because they were in desperate search of jobs. Possibly, they would think that it really wouldn’t matter because they won’t be found out. A small gamble, perhaps.

Think again. Even if your potential employer don’t go out to make reference checks on your abilities, you may be found out in the end if you cannot perform in accordance with your claims. Wouldn’t that make you look bad?

I’ve always told people around me that they should never lie about anything. Nobody will believe you in the end. But even before you reach this stage, the consequence of making a lie is that one lie will lead to another. You’ll be making one more lie to cover up your last one and it never ends.

If you make a lie in your job, the worst that can happen to you is that you’ll be asked to leave. No big deal, you may say, but what comes next after this? Are you planning never to lie again? If so, how are you going to explain to your next employer why you left your previous job? It’s not going to be easy.

What about your resume? Maybe, you’d think that you can avoid not mentioning your previous job in the resume. But explaining the gap in your employment may be a challenge too. What were you doing during those months or years of inacitivity?

Either way, the only one that’s going to end up a loser will be the liar. So, coming back to the original question, would it be all right to pad one’s resume?

I think I have answered the question.

(This article of mine originally appeared in BlogStreet.)

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