Liar, Liar! You Won't Get Hired

Employers reveal the lies they've discovered

CareerBuilder

By Debra Auerbach

People lie about a lot of things: age, weight ... number of Botox injections. Sometimes lies can be harmless (who needs to know that your natural hair color isn't really blond?); other times they can get you into big trouble.

When it comes to employment, bending the truth on your resume might seem worth it in today's competitive workforce, but it will likely get your resume sent to the reject pile. According to a CareerBuilder survey, 58 percent of hiring managers say they've caught a lie on a resume; 33 percent of these employers have seen an increase in resume embellishments post-recession.

While half of employers (51 percent) would automatically dismiss a candidate if they caught a lie on his or her resume, 40 percent say that it would depend on what the candidate lied about. Seven percent of employers would even be willing to overlook a lie if they clicked with the candidate.

Most frequent fibs
So what fabrications are job seekers most likely to make on their resume, with the hopes that they'll go unnoticed? According to employers, the most common lies they catch relate to:

• Embellished skills � 57 percent
• Embellished responsibilities � 55 percent
• Dates of employment � 42 percent
• Job title � 34 percent
• Academic degree � 33 percent
• Companies worked for � 26 percent
• Accolades/awards � 18 percent

Incidences by industry
Lies aren't confined to a certain occupation or job level � job seekers of all types commit lies to boost up their resume. Yet some fields have more offenders than others. The survey found that employers in the following industries catch resume lies more frequently than average:

• Financial services � 73 percent
• Leisure and hospitality � 71 percent
• Information technology � 63 percent
• Health care (more than 50 employees) � 63 percent
• Retail � 59 percent

"Trust is very important in professional relationships, and by lying on your resume, you breach that trust from the very outset," says Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder. "If you want to enhance your resume, it's better to focus on playing up tangible examples from your actual experience. Your resume doesn't necessarily have to be the perfect fit for an organization, but it needs to be relevant and accurate."

The tallest tales ever told
It's one thing to spin your experience to make it more relevant to the position you're pursuing. It's another thing to claim you have more years of experience than is possible at your age. And that's actually happened: One employer surveyed says an applicant claimed to have 25 years of experience at age 32.

Other unusual and outrageous lies employers recall include:

• Applicant included job experience that was actually his father's. Both father and son had the same name (one was Sr., one was Jr.).
• Applicant claimed to be the assistant to the prime minister of a foreign country that doesn't have a prime minister.
• Applicant claimed to have been a high school basketball free throw champion. He admitted it was a lie in the interview.
• Applicant claimed to have been an Olympic medalist.
• Applicant claimed to have been a construction supervisor. The interviewer learned the bulk of his experience was in the completion of a doghouse some years prior.
• Applicant claimed to have worked for 20 years as the babysitter of known celebrities such as Tom Cruise, Madonna, etc.
• Applicant listed three jobs over the past several years. Upon contacting the employers, the interviewer learned that the applicant had worked at one for two days, another for one day and not at all for the third.
• Applicant applied to a position with a company that had just terminated him. He listed the company under previous employment and indicated on his resume that he had quit.
• Applicant applied twice for the same position and provided different work history on each application.

    

How to Fix Your Boss

Who's really the problem? The boss or the employee?

John Hoover

"How to Fix Your Boss"--there is enough presumption in that title to choke a horse. "Fixing the boss" assumes that the boss is the problem. As a recovering Idiot Boss (iBoss), I confess that I have been the idiot husband, the idiot teacher, the idiot student, the idiot boss, and--yes--the idiot employee.

I've been an equal-opportunity aggravation to more people than I care to count. So I hesitate to throw stones at bosses until they are proven guilty. But in western civilization, bosses are assumed to be guilty until proven innocent--so stones tend to fly with every boss-sighting.

In a culture where we are socialized from early childhood to rebel against authority, it's hard to accept that rebellion is not necessarily the most effective response to not having our expectations met. That's the behavior we tend to most frequently associate with authority figures; they stand between us and the expectation we have for something they never promised us in the first place.


We Americans have rebellion in our DNA. The United States was born by kicking its mother country out. We grew up listening to our parents complain about their bosses. We were raised on songs like "Take this Job and Shove It" and "I've Been Workin' on the Railroad" (which, if you look it up on Wikipedia, is not the most pleasant story).

We go to movies like Nine-to-five, Office Space, or Horrible Bosses, and munch popcorn while we watch bosses "get what's coming to them," and laugh at their pain. We work all day in offices that we hate, then go home and watch reruns of The Office.

After listening to our parents kvetch about their bosses, we go to school and embark on a life-long journey of rebellion which begins with declaring war on our parents, our teachers, and our school administrators. When they won't allow us to stay in school any longer, we finally get jobs and spend the rest of our working lives taking our unresolved adolescent rebellion issues out on the most visible, available, and socially-acceptable target: The Boss.

Just when you thought it was safe to attack anyone and anything with institutional authority and thus invoke your hard-earned iconoclasm (natural hatred for authority), along comes Dr. Hoover saying, "Don't screw up your long-term options." What I mean by "long-term options" is this: the sooner you can stop assuming the boss is the problem, the sooner you might repurpose that anger and become a more nimble, agile, and fluid navigator of complex corporate waters.

Why would becoming a more nimble, agile, and fluid navigator of complex corporate waters be a good thing? Because while everybody else is bashing their bosses, you could be sailing to the head of the pack, top of the heap, star of the show, penthouse suite. You should want to hit the executive floor eventually, and be granted all of that executive authority--if, for no other reason, so you can be a good and gracious boss who bestows good things on the employee population.

You'll never become Glenda the Good Witch of the office by boss-bashing. And never forget that the one thing all the bad bosses you ever had have in common...is you. So ask yourself: Am I truly a victim of my boss's cluelessness, or am I a volunteer?

In any dysfunctional workplace relationship, there are at least four factors in play. (Okay, there are more likely a million, but we'll just deal with four.) We'll assume because you chose to read this article that your boss faces some issues vis-�-vis being an effective leader. That, as they say in Vegas, is a "safe bet." That means that some part of the problem is your boss.

But if you stop there, you're missing a big piece of the truth--and therefore, any possible solution to the real problem: How to fix the problem you are having with your boss. To some degree, you are part of this problem. Again, do your own math, but don't give yourself a hall pass and expect to come up with a real solution.

Then consider circumstances and systems. Your luck may have gone south for the winter, and/or the whole system you're operating in might be broken; both of which will make it look it look like your boss is just unbearable. But before you reach for your boss bat, try this formula:



Subtract the Dysfunctional Employee (you) from the Dysfunctional Boss Factor. From that number, subtract the sum of the Bum Luck Factor and the Busted System Factor. How bad does it look now?

I don't know what values you ascribed to the four primary factors, but the mathematical result should mitigate your anti-authority emotional coefficient to some degree. If everything is equally bad, you might be caught in the perfect storm where the poison pill is your only hope.

Doesn't that sound silly? Really? Before you approach every workplace relationship with the assumption that the boss needs to be fixed, which will poison your working environment, make it a mutual-sum game. If the total score is 100, how many numbers are in each of the four circles?

Chart: John Hoover      

Why You Need A Business Card In A Job Hunt

Ideas for creating a personal calling card

Rhona Bronson

One of the first things you lose when you lose a job is the relevancy of your business card, especially if you were lucky enough to have one. If you're tempted to hand out an old business card and write your new contact info on the back, stop. Ordering business cards is one of the least expensive investments you can make in yourself to present a professional demeanor when interviewing or networking. It provides an easy way for follow-up contact, and can provide a way to position yourself to prospective hiring managers.

Today, business cards are so easy to order with a fast turn-around time that there's no reason you shouldn't have one for your next interview or networking event. In fact, getting your own "personal" business card is one of the first things you should do the day after a layoff. In preparing for the new job hunt, you can easily arm yourself with a stack of calling cards for your very first outings at networking events. Here are four easy steps for ordering your new cards, and ideas for what to put on them.

Step 1: Get the cards
Every day there seem to be more and more choices for business card vendors. VistaPrint is one of the key innovators in the digital ordering space and is still one of the primary providers. Recently, they were offering 500 cards for $9.99, discounted from their rack rate of $20. But there are many new players in the field, from Moo.com, which offers different card shapes at a pricier $14.99 (per set of 50), to Gotprint.com.

If you're uncomfortable with digital ordering, march down to your local office supply store. If you need cards tomorrow, you may have to resort to printed cards off your computer, but only do this as a very last resort. Instead, try heading over to the printing center available at most Staples and Office Depot stores, and work with their printing manager. You'll find they can produce professional cards, sometimes in the same day, and usually no longer than 24 hours--frequently at rates that are competitive with the online vendors.

Step 2: Define your positioning
Don't skimp on your business cards. They are cheap enough in their basic pricing that it may be worthwhile to spend the extra few dollars for color, two-sided printing, or even for multiple sets. Business cards are part of making first and lasting impressions, so be sure that your card provides the right one.

Do invest in several sets, especially if you think you need different titles for different types of job interviews. Alternatively, give yourself a longer title that works across several different types of job searches.

In my case, I went with a two-line title on my card, which wasn't really a title at all, but rather a description of who I am in the business world. The top lines of my personal card appear as follows:

Rhona Bronson
Marketing Communications Executive
Digital Media Strategist

I made sure to include several key words in my job description, which reads a bit like a job title but also provides some information about how I view myself.

Step 3: Edit yourself
I do not recommend putting your home address on a card. It can serve to prejudice hiring managers who feel you live too far to commute, and provide personal information not needed to foster a business relationship.

Similarly, if you have a land line, don't put it on the card. Put your cell phone number on the card, and designate it as such by writing "cell" before the number. You never want prospective employers talking to your kids or spouse on a home line--and, if at all possible, you don't want to date yourself with a land line number. Additionally, using a cell phone allows you to easily check the incoming number before deciding to answer.


Finally, don't put cutesy graphics or religious symbols on your card. The card is about serious business-- helping people stay in touch. It may okay be to place a pithy motivational quote on the back as a conversation starter, but it is not the place for kitty pictures, smiling suns, or symbols of various affiliations.

Step 4: Use your cards liberally
Years ago, you saw "calling cards" used in old British movies when gentlemen and ladies came to call.
According to AmericanStationery.com, "Calling or visiting cards ... served a number of social purposes, such as a means of introduction, to further acquaintanceship, to express congratulations or condolences and to provide notices of arrival or departure."

Today, the term "calling card" has been usurped by the telephone industry to refer to paid phone plan cards. But the concept of the calling card is as relevant as ever, as people seek ways to maintain their connections and form new ones. Here are some modern ways to use a personal calling/business card while job-seeking:

• Create an easy introduction. When you first meet someone at a networking event or any meeting, make it easier for them to remember your first name by giving them your card.
• Provide positioning. With a given title under your name, you can quickly position yourself as a digital whiz, systems analyst, or any other descriptor you want associated with your talents.
• Show relevancy. Today, a business card can provide your email, Twitter handle, LinkedIn profile URL, and other modern digital connections in addition to a standard phone number.
• Create conversations. If you are willing to spring for a two-sided card, it can list projects you've handled as immediate examples of your work. Or if you have access to graphic services, it can provide pictures of projects that can also be conversation starters.
• Show personality. If you're a graphics person, the card can show a design flair either through use of graphics, font design, or a unique size. My card was fairly plain, with blue lettering for my name (which matched my resume). Again, make sure that the graphics are professional and not "cute."
• Add business panache. I attached my business card to requested samples of my work and to follow-up thank-you letters. It helped show that I knew how to make presentations both for myself and potentially on behalf of the future employer. It also potentially got me into managers' contact lists, rather than simply filed into a resume folder.

Long before you write your first resume, cover letter, or thank-you note, draft what you'll put on your personal business card. It can help you stay motivated, feel more professional, and put you in a better frame of mind for presenting yourself at networking events and parties--if not job interviews. And after you've perfected your resume, if your first business card doesn't match your desired profile, discard it. For just $9.99 to $25, you can have a whole new set printed up with a quick click of your mouse.    

5 Behaviors That Can Ruin Your Career

What not to do at work, from former GE CEO Jack Welch

Business Insider

By Jacquelyn Smith

If you seem to be on a downward spiral at work, Jack Welch, executive chairman of The Jack Welch Management Institution and former CEO of GE, says it may be time to take a "good look in the mirror" and figure out what you're doing wrong.

He says in a recent LinkedIn post that your behaviors could very well be to blame for your "stalled or faltering career."

He highlights 10 specific career-killing pitfalls - and says if you're guilty of exhibiting any, you should make it your mission to change them immediately.

Once you do, Welch says, "you're likely to see your career move from a stall to a soar."

Here are five of the behaviors you'll want to avoid:

1. Over-committing and under-delivering. All talk, no walk won't help you get ahead. Make promises you can keep.

2. Resisting change. Failing to embrace new ideas can seriously hurt your career. Be open-minded.

3. Always worrying about your next career move. You need to focus on the present. If you're always thinking, "What's next?" you'll seem distracted and not committed to your current tasks at hand.

4. Being a problem identifier versus a problem solver. Identifying problems sounds a lot like complaining if you don't do anything about them.

5. Being complacent. If you stop growing as a person and a professional, you'll stand still (or even take steps backward) in your career.

How to evaluate candidates' soft skills

By Mary Lorenz, CareerBuilder writer

Watch out, hard skills and technical know-how: You've got competition. According to a new CareerBuilder survey, the vast majority (77 percent) of employers consider soft skills just as important as hard skills when it comes to evaluating candidates for a job, and 16 percent even say they're more important.

What are soft skills? As my colleague pointed out recently, soft skills typically describe "communication, leadership, critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, team skills, relationship management and a long list of other so-called intangible traits." Though they are hard to measure quantitatively, soft skills remain a sought after trait and recognized business differentiator among employers.

Perhaps the heavy focus on soft skills has to do with the fact that employers have been struggling to find candidates with the hard skills they need (particularly when it comes to technology skills and big data expertise). Many employers have even reported that they've started focusing on cultural fit and potential over skills, figuring they can train them on-the-job with the necessary hard skills.

According to the survey of more than 2,000 hiring managers nationwide, the top ten most popular soft skills companies say they look for when hiring include:

1.      Strong work ethic
2.      Dependability
3.      Positive attitude
4.      Self-motivation
5.      Team-oriented attitude
6.      Organization; ability to manage multiple priorities
7.      Ability to work well under pressure
8.      Effective communication skills
9.      Flexibility
10.   Confidence

Evaluating soft skills: The one type of interview question you must ask

Whether through pre-employment testing or during the interview process, using behavioral interview questions is one of the most effective ways to evaluate a candidate's soft skills. Behavioral interview questions are those that center around real-life experiences the candidate has had, as opposed to hypotheticals. For example, instead of asking, "What would you do if...?" ask "Tell me about a time when..." or "Give me an example of..."

There are two main reasons behavioral interview questions work: One, past behavior is a better predictor of future success on the job than potential behavior, according to workforce management expert Nancy Newell, because it helps predict future success on the job by looking into past behavior; two, when they hear questions shaped around potential behavior, candidates are more likely to say what they think you want to hear.

By asking for real-life examples, you'll get more insight into candidates' soft skills, such as how well they work under pressure, how they communicate and their work ethic. Some more examples of behavioral interview questions include:

• Describe a time when you had a problem with a supervisor and what you did to resolve it.
• Give me an example of how you handled a very tense situation at work.
• Tell me about a time when you had difficulty getting others to work together on a critical problem and how you handled it.
• Tell me about the best leader you have worked with, why you felt this way, and what you learned from that person.
• Describe a problem you faced that was almost overwhelming and how you got through it.

Keep in mind, of course, that these questions are not full-proof -- there is no "magic bullet" when it comes to hiring, says Newell -- however, behavioral interview questions are your best bet for finding employees with the soft skills your organization values most.