Was there ever a time in American history when employers were honest about their offerings, and candidates were honest about their skills?
Over the years I’ve had quite a few friends who work in human resources*, and most of them have confirmed that employers assume that people lie on their resumes, so they assume that people have fewer skills than they’ve listed. Knowing that HR doesn’t trust them anyway, many people — particularly those new to professional employment — exaggerate their skills, titles, and accomplishments to compensate for this downgrade. Everyone alters their perceptions based on the assumption that the other party is not dealing with them fairly, with the end result that no one is being honest at all.
The current economy, oddly enough, has led to a different kind of deception. Payroll budgets have been slashed, eliminating many management positions. As a result, human resource departments are largely uninterested in people with management experience, particularly those applying for non-managerial jobs; candidates with leadership experience who have been unemployed for any length of time are then downplaying or completely removing their prior management experience, just to get an interview.
Here’s an example. Through years of hard work and patience, a friend rose to a high-level position in information technology, receiving many citations for his leadership and innovation. Nonetheless, when his employer decided to outsource their IT role, he was laid off. For months he couldn’t even get a call-back from a potential employer, even working through a headhunter. He eventually gave up on the headhunter and started applying for pure programming positions. (He’d managed to keep his skills up to date in spite of his years of management.) Still no calls.
Finally, he revised his resume, changing his title to “senior programmer,” and removing any mention of his management experience. Immediately he started getting calls for interviews, and quickly landed a job as a database administrator. There’s no way of knowing if he’d have gotten the interview with a straight resume, but the evidence indicates that he might not.
This isn’t something I’m comfortable with doing. I’m not a complete idiot, so I do tailor my resume to the offering. So far I haven’t changed my titles, though, or removed anything to indicate that I may be overqualified for a position. Maybe that’s hindering me in my job search, but I don’t know that I’d want to work for a company that expected and encouraged deceit in its hiring process.
I do understand the reasons given as to why companies shy away from someone clearly overqualified for a position. A very high percentage of the cost of hiring is the orientation and training of the new employee, and if you suspect that they are going to jump ship when the economy improves then it makes little sense to invest on a questionable return. When the economy improves, though, a good company will rise on that same tide, and may have need of employees with a larger skill set than that expressly required by the position. It would seem to make sense to already have those skills available, thereby removing the additional expense of hiring yet another employee to fill those needs. But I am not a human resources professional, so perhaps there are additional considerations which support keeping a less-skilled workforce, rather than encouraging the loyalty of a superior candidate.
Then again, maybe deceit is simply too tightly woven into the fabric of corporate America. In the business world there is a tacit understanding that everyone around you is always lying, is always trying to cheat you. For many this mindset provides a perfect rationalization for their own deceptive practices: do unto others before they do unto you. Pessimists (or “realists,” as they like to call themselves) will say that’s just the way people are, so deal with it. Optimists (or “losers,” as pessimists like to call them) prefer to think this is a temporary aberration of human nature, and one that social change will cure. I’m somewhere between the two. I’m enough of an optimist to hope that someday the employment process will become honest again, but I’ve been in the workforce long enough to harbor doubts.
It isn’t a question likely to be resolved any time soon. For now I’ll just keep sending out resumes, and hope that even if it doesn’t get me a job, that honesty will still count for something in the cosmic sense.
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*”Human resources” is a term I find personally odious. The industry’s move to it from “personnel,” I suspect, signaled a philosophical shift from treating an employee as a person, to treating them as a consumable object, like cardboard boxes or toilet paper. Sure, it’s just a word, but words carry weight far beyond their concise denotation. Nonetheless, at this point it’s unlikely to change.
{ 5 comments }
I’ve never lied on my resume. I also don’t lie in interviews. Not only is it against my grain but it’s too easy to uncover lies and too hard to keep track of them. I do expect the company to lie so I ask pointed questions to try to get around this and get at the truth.
Now you have me wondering how naive I have been. Perhaps I look underqualified for positions which I have done because I do not embellish? If this is the case, maybe I, too, should strip my resume down to apply for positions below my skill set. Since the other alternate would be to become deceitful, as you say others are, and I am unwilling to be, this seems the only alternative.
It also goes far in explaining why past employers were mystified that I possess skills detailed on my resume. I wonder why they have never called me on things they assume are lies? I guess I AM naive.
There are lies and there’s “stretching the truth”. When I was laid off of from (what used to be) a large manufacturer, seven years ago, one resume expert explained that all companies were looking to see valuable metrics in our work histories. Example: “Migrated 500 Employees to a new computer based training program, saving $250,00.00.” Of course, she helped me estimate those figures. I bent over, and she pulled them out of my ass.
Unfortunately, you are correct. I have about 28 positions reporting to me and we are always seeking someone it seems. The goal is to find someone who is a bit of a stretch for the job, who can grow into it, and then advance. This is because my company pays poorly. The benefits are great, but the salary about $3,000 to $5,000 less than similar companies. Someone who is clearly over qualified for the position would be that much more underpaid. The fact is one has to assume this person is a short timer. Even if the economy improves that doesn’t mean my staffing will increase. (I’m not in the IT field).
My advice is to write your resume in a different format, talking about skills and talents and downplaying the big titles. The cover letter should clearly indicate you know something about the company and truly want to work there. The interview should be honest, but again, you need to overcome that obstacle by convincing them you plan on remaining with them for more than six months or a year.
It sucks, indeed.
All the best.
Some Blogging Guy
I couldn’t see myself lying on my resume, but then again I’m not, at least in my eyes, overqualified for anything because I think there is always so much more to learn.
However, when I have done interviewing and had to interview those individuals that were overqualified, I found myself feeling bad and even guilty if I said no. I never once said no to someone that was overqualified for that reason, but when you see someone that used to run their own business and now they are applying for a job as a call center interviewer for market research, you tend to just feel bad.
When I was out of work and met with an advisor (just a lady at the unemployment office — I was randomly selected for an audit) her basic advice for me was “pretend to be younger.” I already had my first three-five years or so removed from my resume, but it wasn’t really enough, according to her! She also told me to remove my date of graduation. She also told me to try to find a job as an office manager (Kevin knows me but for those who don’t, I’m a writer without an organized bone in my body).
Mostly I ignored her. I got a job a month later.