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This is good advice. Employers are increasingly unforgiving of people with gaps in their resumés. There are fewer second chances in this world and it's getting

This is good advice. Employers are increasingly unforgiving of people with gaps in their resumés. There are fewer second chances in this world and it's getting harder to recover from early failures.

michaelochurch 13y ago
Employers are increasingly unforgiving of people with gaps in their resumés. There are fewer second chances in this world and it's getting harder to recover from early failures. I can only give this advice because I haven't had to do it (I wouldn't publicly endorse it if I were out doing it) and don't think I ever will: people need to start lying. As far as I'm concerned, employers who hold gaps or unemployment or "job hopping" or low previous salaries or past political adversity against people-- basically, the dumbfucks who evaluate people based on social-status shit that has nothing to do with getting the job done-- deserve to be lied to. They won't do the right thing unless deceived, so deceive away. I don't lie on my resume (I don't need to, and I'm too much in the public) but I don't think it's unethical to inflate titles, play with dates, misrepresent performance reviews, or otherwise inflate one's status. As long as you're not claiming to be able to do work that you actually can't perform (i.e. actual job fraud as opposed to status inflation) you're OK as far as I'm concerned. Of course, misrepresenting objective skills and training is different. If you claim to be a doctor and you've never set foot in a medical school, you're putting lives at risk and should be sent to jail. Job fraud is wrong, social status inflation is OK. Great minds discuss ideas, middling minds discuss events, and small minds discuss people. The problem in business, especially with resume culture, is that everything comes down to discussion of people, because there are so many small-minded people in positions of power. Those who are unemployed for more than 6 months become "dirty" even if they're more than capable. As far as I'm concerned, that's proof of the current system's ethical bankruptcy and a bit of lubrication (harmless deception) to overcome its pernicious inefficiencies is right in order.
- FLUX-YOU 13y ago
  >I don't lie on my resume (I don't need to, and I'm too much in the public) but I don't think it's unethical to inflate titles, play with dates, misrepresent performance reviews, or otherwise inflate one's status. As long as you're not claiming to be able to do work that you actually can't perform (i.e. actual job fraud as opposed to status inflation) you're OK as far as I'm concerned. Especially relevant to programming. Though I do struggle with convincing myself to put some things on my resume. Example: I spent a year messing with front-end web development. Some days I'd just write a few Javascript functions and try to fix/break stuff, other days I would bang out a small project start-to-finish. Total maximum time per week would probably average to 15 hours. If my prospects ask for 1 year of experience, it's really unclear what level of time spent and knowledge they're looking for. At 780 hours for that year, I've put in 3/8ths the time of someone who works full-time at (supposedly) 2080 hours per year and wasn't also distracted by a completely unrelated job. Ethical Me wants to be responsible and not misrepresent. Practical Me says I need the money. Unlike the doctor example, programmers have a lot of time to research and tinker without making someone bleed. It's difficult to be sure of what I can actually do before I've done it whereas doctors go through many, many tests to verify their skills.
  - BSousa 13y ago
    Well, think of it this way: 90% chance if they like your inflated resume, they will ask you for a technical interview. If you don't pass that, ok, no harm done, if you do, you might get a job, and they think you will be able to do the job at hand. I've advocated what Michael is saying before here. I was lucky to never have to do it, but I have been on the recruiting side and didn't care much for some resume inflation on candidates (specially in companies where HR are involved in the process because no one has 5+ years of mongo experience but if they hear you need an experience mongo guy that is what they are going to put in the ad)

This is good advice. Employers are increasingly unforgiving of people with gaps in their resumés. There are fewer second chances in this world and it's getting harder to recover from early failures.

michaelochurch 13y ago

Employers are increasingly unforgiving of people with gaps in their resumés. There are fewer second chances in this world and it's getting harder to recover from early failures. I can only give this advice because I haven't had to do it (I wouldn't publicly endorse it if I were out doing it) and don't think I ever will: people need to start lying. As far as I'm concerned, employers who hold gaps or unemployment or "job hopping" or low previous salaries or past political adversity against people-- basically, the dumbfucks who evaluate people based on social-status shit that has nothing to do with getting the job done-- deserve to be lied to. They won't do the right thing unless deceived, so deceive away. I don't lie on my resume (I don't need to, and I'm too much in the public) but I don't think it's unethical to inflate titles, play with dates, misrepresent performance reviews, or otherwise inflate one's status. As long as you're not claiming to be able to do work that you actually can't perform (i.e. actual job fraud as opposed to status inflation) you're OK as far as I'm concerned. Of course, misrepresenting objective skills and training is different. If you claim to be a doctor and you've never set foot in a medical school, you're putting lives at risk and should be sent to jail. Job fraud is wrong, social status inflation is OK. Great minds discuss ideas, middling minds discuss events, and small minds discuss people. The problem in business, especially with resume culture, is that everything comes down to discussion of people, because there are so many small-minded people in positions of power. Those who are unemployed for more than 6 months become "dirty" even if they're more than capable. As far as I'm concerned, that's proof of the current system's ethical bankruptcy and a bit of lubrication (harmless deception) to overcome its pernicious inefficiencies is right in order.

FLUX-YOU 13y ago
>I don't lie on my resume (I don't need to, and I'm too much in the public) but I don't think it's unethical to inflate titles, play with dates, misrepresent performance reviews, or otherwise inflate one's status. As long as you're not claiming to be able to do work that you actually can't perform (i.e. actual job fraud as opposed to status inflation) you're OK as far as I'm concerned. Especially relevant to programming. Though I do struggle with convincing myself to put some things on my resume. Example: I spent a year messing with front-end web development. Some days I'd just write a few Javascript functions and try to fix/break stuff, other days I would bang out a small project start-to-finish. Total maximum time per week would probably average to 15 hours. If my prospects ask for 1 year of experience, it's really unclear what level of time spent and knowledge they're looking for. At 780 hours for that year, I've put in 3/8ths the time of someone who works full-time at (supposedly) 2080 hours per year and wasn't also distracted by a completely unrelated job. Ethical Me wants to be responsible and not misrepresent. Practical Me says I need the money. Unlike the doctor example, programmers have a lot of time to research and tinker without making someone bleed. It's difficult to be sure of what I can actually do before I've done it whereas doctors go through many, many tests to verify their skills.
- BSousa 13y ago
  Well, think of it this way: 90% chance if they like your inflated resume, they will ask you for a technical interview. If you don't pass that, ok, no harm done, if you do, you might get a job, and they think you will be able to do the job at hand. I've advocated what Michael is saying before here. I was lucky to never have to do it, but I have been on the recruiting side and didn't care much for some resume inflation on candidates (specially in companies where HR are involved in the process because no one has 5+ years of mongo experience but if they hear you need an experience mongo guy that is what they are going to put in the ad)