Don’t Lie on your Resume – but do Spin

Honesty is always the best policy and the same holds true when writing our resume and you should never flat out lie; but there are times when you should spin. You hear the term spin from the politicians that can take any situation and ‘spin’ it to become something totally different. While you may view a Governor drinking a beer at a bar as a bad thing, you may not feel that way, once a spin doctor gets a hold of the story and tells you that the Governor was simply out in an attempt to re-connect with the local blue collared workers of America. Same situation, different spin.

It is this art of spinning that can be used to help you at times on your resume. Here are some places on your resume where you never want to lie, but you may want to spin:

• Education: If you only completed three and a half years of college, put that down. It may be tempting to say that you did graduate, but these days it is very easy for potential employer to check. But you also don’t want to simply put that you didn’t graduate. Here is a perfect place to spin. Tell why you didn’t complete college. For example, ‘I left school early to take a position with XYZ corporation and am currently seeking information about online coursed that will help me to complete my schooling and obtain my degree.’ Same situation, just worded differently.

• Time gaps: This is especially for the former stay at home moms. It is very bad to leave large time gaps in your resume, but you never want to lie and say you worked when you really didn’t. At the same time you don’t want to just say you stayed at home to take care of your child; spin it. For example, ‘I took some time out of the private sector and devoted much of my time to volunteer work.’ This can be especially true as most stay at home moms do find themselves volunteering a great deal for the schools in which their children attend. This is a wonderful skill and when spun properly it can not only look good on a resume, but it will also fill that nasty time gap.

• Experience: Never lie about what you can and cannot do for an employer because the time may come when you are asked to perform what you said you could do and then you are stuck staring like a deer in the headlights. You should however, spin your work experience to be relevant to the job in which you are applying. If you are applying for a management position at a financial firm and you have managed before at a fast food restaurant, key in on the fact that you did mange others before, not necessarily who. For example, instead of saying you managed the fry section of your local greasy spoon, say, ‘At XYZ I was in charge of a four member team and oversaw their day to day activities to ensure proper productivity was taking place.’ Beats the heck out of saying you yelled at four guys to drop more baskets of fries.

Again, being honest is the best way to get a job and if you lie you are taking a big risk that you will get caught. Instead of telling outright lies on your resume, think like the politicians do and make sure that you are spinning your story in a way that will come off pleasing to anyone who reads it.

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