Lying on your resume is one of those taboo topics. Tell a tall tale and you’re bound to get caught – just like the politicians and professors before you. But having been on both ends of the hiring spectrum, I know there’s another problem that plagues many candidates, and military veterans, in particular, and that’s being just a little too honest about every resume detail. A resume is more than just a factual list, it’s a creative writing exercise. It shouldn’t involve any lies concerning your skills, technical credentials or education, but there may be a few areas where you need to translate. I’ll call those resume lies that should absolutely be included on your resume.
Experience
A recent meme posted on the ClearanceJobs Facebook page really hit home for a number of job seekers. It urged “If you could stop posting entry level jobs that require 3-5 years of experience, that would be great.” This caveat catches veterans all of the time. They want to pursue a career in IT, or program management, but feel they don’t have the years of experience demanded in the position description, so they don’t even bother applying.
Before you rule yourself out, take a look at the other qualifications – if you find yourself in possession of 90 percent of the qualifications required by the position (education, certification, etc), but simply find you fall short on the number of years of experience required, I’d still encourage you to apply for the position. In some cases the government has a specific stipulation on the years of professional experience required, but in others, the employer may have the freedom to make equivalencies based on your military background or other accomplishments. Unless you’ve never worked a job in your life, you have some experience to bring to the table. Make sure you indicate that on your resume.
Job Titles
Job titles can be a real mess in the military and government sector. I managed social media for the government for awhile but my actual title was ‘public affairs specialist.’ If I were to get technical on my resume, I would have listed three concurrent jobs under that same title – talk about confusing. Rather than waste that valuable resume space, I put my creative writing degree to use and created job titles that reflected my work. If possible, it’s best to confirm/clarify the titles you’re using on your resume with your previous managers (so when someone calls your old employer to verify your job, they don’t get confused). In most cases, employers understand tweaking your job title to provide clarity – particularly if you’ve served an entire military career with the acronym soup of titles that implies.
The one caveat to this resume lie is that it isn’t appropriate to confer management or supervisory experience you didn’t possess. Add the manager moniker to your resume with care, and if you do, make sure your supervisor would back you up on that.
Salary
In general, you’re not asked to list salary on your resume. But if you move through the application process, it will absolutely come up. You shouldn’t outright lie about your previous salary, but you should consider total compensation, particularly if you were in the military. If you’ve recently separated from service, calculating your new salary requirements based on your salary would leave off your housing allowance, benefits, and other critical perks. Use online compensation calculators to help you determine your total salary amount, and use that as the baseline in negotiations.
‘Thou shalt not tell a lie’ is generally a really good policy. But on your resume, literally every character counts. In some instances, your career prospects – and hiring managers – will be better off if you put your critical thinking – and perhaps your creative writing – skills to use on your resume.
