5

Fake Experience

The "Work Experience" section forms the bulk of most resumes, and with good reason. For HR purposes, past performance is far and away the most likely indicator of future success, and it's here that hiring managers will look to see if you have what it takes to fulfill the role of waitress, or sales manager, or CEO of Yahoo!

When doctoring this section of the resume, you obviously want to paint yourself as the ideal candidate the hiring manager is looking for. But also consider how likely it is that your lie will be uncovered. Hiring managers are most likely to investigate the most important and the most recent jobs, so keep your fabrications minimal there. Save your most creative stuff for the older entries; hiring managers understand it's often not possible to get references for things that happened a decade or more earlier.

4

Fake Skills

This is a slightly fluffy part of the resume, where you list the skills you bring to the job. Most hiring managers only give this a passing glance; obviously, the most useful skills will already be reflected in the "Experience" section. It's still useful to have this section in here, however, if only to populate your resume with keywords that will get it picked up by the filters and unfeeling robots who are a sad part of the modern hiring process.

Remember to be careful here. Any skill that is really critical for this position will likely be tested during the interview process, which will be a lot harder to fake your way through.

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"No, don't put that in your mouth. Where did you say you learned Excel again?"

3

Fake Name

Normally, your name is the last thing you would fake on your resume. If you were to get hired, you'd then have to live your whole working life under that name, which will massively complicate the payroll process.

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"There seems to be a problem with your check here, uh ... Mr. Coolio Stallone."

2

Fake Threats

Real resumes almost never use threats, because most job applicants are eager to demonstrate how sane they are. "I'm an ideal candidate, and your pets definitely aren't in danger!" these people are saying, unimaginatively.

Which is unfortunate, because the interviewing process is already badly unbalanced; the hiring manager has all the power in the relationship. By making threats, you tip that balance back in your direction. And by making fake threats, you tip the balance back in your direction in a fun, consequence-free kind of way. "Ha ha! Your pets were safe the whole time!" Who wouldn't respond to the relief of hearing that statement with a firm job offer?

1

Fake References

Once you get deeper into the interviewing process, references become incredibly important -- when hiring for a position of any responsibility, most hiring managers will check up on at least a couple references for their chosen candidates. And if everyone who ever worked with you is glad I used the past tense of "work," then you could be in a lot of trouble.

Conclusion

As you can see, when lying on your resume, you have to always consider the long game. What if it gets found out? When is that likely? What will be both the long-term and short-term effects of this? Are you going to be in and out of a low-level job within a couple years? Then yeah, maybe you can get away with some lies. Or are you applying to be the CEO of Yahoo!? Because that's kind of a long-term, high-profile move; someone's bound to smoke you out. Maybe lie a little less, or take a couple night courses until you do become qualified to lead Yahoo!

Or are you simply trying to get a co-worker thrown in jail for a couple days just to see if you can? Because even if that does get eventually found out, you might be able to get a column out of it, and it will at least look really good in the "Treachery" section of your next resume.

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For more from Bucholz, check out 7 Tips for Sexting Someone You Barely Know and 10 Helpful Tips For Bending The Masses to Your Will.

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