While the job market for recent college graduates is a
bit stronger than it might have been eight years ago, finding a job that's a
good fit can still be a challenge. Even though they can be useful, networking
websites can only go so far in identifying potential job offers. It still can
be an anxiety-filled process to search for a job, particularly when your
professional experience might not yet be all that substantial.
Recently, a reader told me of an experience she had when
trying to fill a position at her business. She received dozens of applications
for an open position, many from seemingly qualified applicants. One applicant
worked for a business that the reader knew well. She grew surprised when the
applicant described her duties on her resume that closely resembled those of
someone else the reader knew worked there. She thought that the applicant might
have replaced this other person, but there was no way to tell from the resume.
Since the skills and experience the applicant described mirrored those the
reader was looking for, she called her in for an interview.
At the interview, the reader discovered that the
applicant reported to the person the reader knew at the other business. In the
interview, it became clear that the applicant had neglected to indicate that
she assisted with many of the tasks she had listed on her resume, but didn't
really have the direct experience running and managing operations that she'd
suggested she'd had.
The applicant was quite forthcoming in the interview
about what responsibilities she actually had at her current job, and that the
roles she mentioned on her resume consisted of assisting someone else.
"So you don't actually have a management role where
you currently work?" the reader asked the applicant.
"No," she responded. The interview ended and
the applicant never got the job.
Now, the reader wonders whether she had an ethical
responsibility to raise the issue with this applicant of providing misleading
information on the resume she'd submitted.
The reader's experience raises how tempting it might be
for job seekers to pad their resumes by embellishing their actual experience.
Sometimes, such padding might consist of outright fabrications where expertise
or experience is listed that an applicant clearly doesn't have. Other times,
applicants such as the one with whom the reader met try to make their current
job responsibilities appear to be more than they actually are. Each type of
embellishment is wrong and easily found out with some quick due diligence by an
interviewer. Then there is the padding that is hard to verify, such as claiming
skills or hobbies that might be relevant to a prospective employer but for
which there is no actual record. Such embellishments are also wrong.
The reader did the right thing by asking the applicant
pointed questions to get at whether the experience she listed actually
reflected the experience she had. Her responsibility is to her employer to do
the most thorough due diligence possible on each applicant to make sure that
the person they hire has the experience needed and claimed.
The right thing for the applicant or any applicant is to
make themselves as attractive to a prospective employer as possible, but never
to use big or small lies to try to get a foot into the door.
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of The Simple Art of Business Etiquette: How to Rise to the Top by Playing Nice, is a lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at Harvard's Kennedy School. He is also the administrator of www.jeffreyseglin.com, a blog focused on ethical issues.
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net.
Follow him on Twitter: @jseglin
(c) 2017 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.
