Ten tall tales told on resumes.

Have you caught people in lies on the résumés? I was interviewing a candidate for a documentation position years ago and while out at lunch she seemed to say things which contradicted some of the information on her printed résumé. Her tales of a “current” job and the reason she was seeking new employment didn’t quite feel right.

One call to the employer later by our HR department confirmed my suspicions. She did not have the skills nor role she was claiming. Plus, she had already left that job. Of course, she wasn’t hired.

I interviewed a guy once who had 4 or 5 years of time unaccounted for right in the middle of several other jobs. Thankfully, he had a good answer. He had decided to join the military and felt it wasn’t relevant to the current position, so he had removed it. (I suggested he put it back).

I see technical resumes which pad skills and knowledge far too often; programming language padding seem to be the most common on developer resumes. Just because your office neighbor has a book on the programming language Python shouldn’t give you reason to include it on your resume! :)  I enjoy asking developers about these skills — making them sweat when they realize they shouldn’t have put a specific technology on their resume.

Have you padded your resume? Do you include every programming language technology that you’ve encountered, regardless of your level of experience/knowledge?

Do you still include “Microsoft Office”? :)

What’s the funniest thing you’ve encountered in interviews or on resumes?