So....CV honesty

[mace]

I've seen loads of dickheads claim they are an expert at x, y and z, then watched them mess it up, and i have often been the one to clean it up.

Odd thing is many of these people earned more than me and seem to still get more time and respect from senior management than i ever got.

Maybes we should all just brush up on bulltulipting skills to mix it up with the agents?

Techies say it how it is. Politicians are never direct. When soft skills are mentioned, lying is skill no.1 with pretending to be very upset if somebody accuses you of being less than honest in at no.2.

[Clippy]

I've never had to 'embellish' my CV so far and wouldn't do it.

Yet your opening statement in this post, recommends exactly that!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not having a dig, but I think you have highlighted what a lot of people do which is to stretch the truth a little.

I also think, in this day and age of spin, CV 'padding' is not frowned upon as much as it used to be which is a shame.

Similar to yourself, I clearly detail the level of experience I have with the use of good english but interviewers rarely see past the keywords of skills they are looking for but I aim to clarify at interview stage if this becomes apparent.

[Green Mango]

My CV is 100% honest, with no embelishment of any sort and so far its stood me in good stead.

But hypothetically if a role came up that you were 80% a good match for and you could easily learn the other 20% on the job with no problem is it a bad thing to put the 20% on your CV as something you have already done in order to get the role ?

Ever seen that film "Trading Places". Seems to me that film has something to say about why peoples moral compasses vary i.e. the more desperate you are the more your moral compass varies.

[RichardCranium]

I took the liberty of stealing your topic and creating a poll on it. I assumed you wouldn't mind.

My IP lawyers will be with you shortly.....

That's handy, I'll give them my invoice.

[centurian]

How do you "100% honest" guys deal with stuff that you haven't used in a live production environment. Perhaps you've messed around with it in your spare time, or have some other exposure, but never actually used it for real.

Say all your contracts have been .NET 3.0, but you've been playing around with .NET 3.5 in your spare time ever since it came out and can easily fit into a role that requires it.

Do you include it on your CV or not?

[centurian]

I also think, in this day and age of spin, CV 'padding' is not frowned upon as much as it used to be which is a shame.

Maybe because recruiters automatically build in a 20% buffer when aprasing CV's.

Didn't last year's Apprentice winner blantantly lie on his CV...

[Green Mango]

Maybe because recruiters automatically build in a 20% buffer when aprasing CV's.

Didn't last year's Apprentice winner blantantly lie on his CV...

Let me see IT recruiters want the perfect CVs with no gaps. Is it any wonder that engineers reduce those gaps and slighly embelish thoses skills. I don't think so.

The stories I've seem about MP CV's is that they've done exactly the same thing.

It seems to me that we will have a very slow and gradual recovery from this recession and that will mean that many IT contractors will not be re-engaged. In other words it will be the end of their careers. If a little white lie will allow you to escape that it seems perfectly permisable to me. I'm not talking about a big lie mind.

[RichardCranium]

How do you deal with stuff that you haven't used in a live production environment. Perhaps you've messed around with it in your spare time, or have some other exposure, but never actually used it for real.

Do you include it on your CV or not?

Not.

[TiroFijo]

Yet your opening statement in this post, recommends exactly that!

I'm pretty much talking about listing skills which one clearly doesn't have or listing qualifications which again which one cleary doesn't have.

Adding an extra few months onto a long gig to cover a wee road trip, in this case he was on one for 8 years 'in my mind' is no biggy.

Listing skills that you have never used or places where you have never worked is taking the pi$$ a bit.

[Sysman]

How do you "100% honest" guys deal with stuff that you haven't used in a live production environment. Perhaps you've messed around with it in your spare time, or have some other exposure, but never actually used it for real.

Say all your contracts have been .NET 3.0, but you've been playing around with .NET 3.5 in your spare time ever since it came out and can easily fit into a role that requires it.

Do you include it on your CV or not?

It depends how thoroughly I went into it. Because I'm more of a sysadmin type, I might mention success with some horrendously complex product installation and configuration or experience with backup products.

I also might mention something like "Currently evaluating product X", but again only when I'm confident that I have done a proper evaluation.

Adding an extra few months onto a long gig to cover a wee road trip, in this case he was on one for 8 years 'in my mind' is no biggy.

The older stuff on my CV just lists the years.