I’ve never had much luck with submitting resumes to be electronically scanned, but this list from Nearly Half Employers Have Caught Employees Lies on Resume is pretty helpful. These are the key words and phrases that are searched for most often that you should insert appropriately in your resume.
— problem-solving and decision-making skills (50 percent)
— oral and written communications (44 percent)
— customer service or retention (34 percent)
— performance and productivity improvement (32 percent)
— leadership (30 percent)
— technology (27 percent)
— team-building (26 percent)
— project management (20 percent)
— bilingual (14 percent)
As the article suggests, don’t lie. Not only is it wrong, you can get caught fairly easily, according to my headhunter friend. And especially don’t pretend to be a member of the Kennedy family. Or an astronaut.
July 30th, 2008 at 11:01 am
I was actually told by a headhunter to lie about my education! I didn’t in the interview, and got the job.
July 30th, 2008 at 11:12 am
Really? My headhunter friend has to check all that sort of thing (references, education), and often finds that people just blatantly lie….
July 30th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Considering that about half of all white collar jobs are now in PR, advertising, and marketing I think to lie sounds like an appropriate suggestion…
August 1st, 2008 at 10:13 pm
I know of several well paid manager types who lied about their education or previous positions, but they weren’t fired because the company didn’t find out about the lie until AFTER they’d been hired and their probationary period had ended. *shaking head*