Don't Inflate Your Experience

[Resume Writer]

Hi Everyone,

I found this article on Career Builder and thought I would share it with everyone. There are some really compelling stories included that I believe really drive this point home.

Kathy

How Inflating Experience
Can Deflate Your Career

By Joann S. Lublin
From The Wall Street Journal Online
A young man recently landed a job as an entry-level recruiter for search firm Kaye/Bassman International partly because he was enthusiastic about making cold calls.

But he phoned far fewer possible clients and candidates than the Dallas concern expected. "He was let go on the third day," says Jeff Kaye, president and CEO. His performance didn't match "what he thought he was capable of doing."

Many overanxious job seekers oversell themselves nowadays. They exaggerate their accomplishments or markedly minimize their weaknesses. If you skate on this thin ice, an employer may not hire you -- or may fire you fast.

"Overselling gets you into far more trouble than the anxiety that goes with looking for the job that's the right match," says Jim Lake, senior vice president of corporate human resources at Comerica, a large Detroit bank.

You can avoid such troubles through an honest assessment of your strengths and weaknesses. Only promote prowess that you can prove. Admitting a shortcoming can be a mark of integrity as long as you offset it by immediately describing an asset.

Last winter, a New York public-relations firm asked an applicant whether she could integrate teams at three different agencies for a big corporate client. She tried to oversell herself by citing a prior experience involving multiple divisions of a business. The problem: the scope wasn't comparable and "they knew it," she recalls. "I couldn't think fast enough" to offer better evidence. The firm picked a different contender.

A major financial-services company came close to hiring a middle manager for a $100,000-plus position in fall 2002. In recounting her college studies, she "sounded like she had completed her degree," a senior executive says. "She never mentioned that she was still going to school."

But when officials scrutinized her résumé, they learned she wouldn't graduate until 2004. The woman later explained she concealed her lack of a degree during interviews because the information seemed irrelevant. Yet she could have turned this shortcoming to her advantage by emphasizing her ability to work and attend school simultaneously.

A good grasp of your target's culture may further reduce your overselling risks. "Do your homework and ask a lot of questions," because "every organization is different, even in the same industry," suggests Challis Lowe, an executive vice president of Ryder System, a Miami transportation-services provider.

While employed elsewhere several years ago, Ms. Lowe hired a successful marketing executive. However, she soon discovered he had overestimated his ability to adapt to his new workplace. Veteran insiders "didn't share information readily" and rejected outsiders, she remembers. "He felt that [his] functional excellence would prevail," but he lasted only six months.

Ask a spouse, career coach, friend or former staffer of a potential employer to play devil's advocate. Urge them to challenge your arguments about why you think you're the perfect prospect.

Likely references should support your claims, too. Give them your résumé and planned explanation of professional shortcomings. Say, "Here's the answer I will give in the interview. Maybe you can back me up on that," recommends David Opton, CEO of ExecuNet, a career-networking organization in Norwalk, Conn.

Just before a satellite concern brought aboard a new vice president this past spring, an executive called a friend who previously worked for the frontrunner. The friend said his old boss had inflated his project-leadership roles and the number of his subordinates. The company chose someone else.

If you do oversell yourself into a job, how can you handle the sinking feeling that you're in over your head? Recognize your limitations, and seek help right away.

Sympathetic colleagues may be willing tutors. Demonstrate your mastery of a key skill before telling your supervisor that you're struggling with certain other duties. Propose a specific remedy, such as outside training. Most bosses will help because they "look pretty silly if [they] hired someone who's not qualified," notes Comerica's Mr. Lake.

Experience can be a great teacher. A major online brokerage house laid off a product manager in fall 2001 -- only a year after she was hired -- because she oversold her capabilities. The 29-year-old manager found herself heading large technical teams and making high-level, formal presentations for the first time. "I didn't want to be a leader," she recollects, adding that she welcomed the layoff. "I had a hard time going into work every day,'' she says.

The Chicago resident will soon finish graduate school and has resumed job hunting. During a phone interview last month for a marketing post at a small financial-services firm, a vice president wondered whether she had ever negotiated business contracts. She started to reply affirmatively, then cut herself short.

She now recognizes the fallacy of promising employers too much. "Eventually," she says, "they will find out."

 

[FN FAL]

Hi Kathy, thanks for the interesting articles that you provide the board. I know I'm a bit of a renegade, but I do read what you post. I hope these two analogies relate closely to the article you posted.

My brother is V.P. of a small company that specializes in the niche market of lap top repair. They repair lap tops at the component level and in order to do that profitably, they require a small staff of technicians that can think fast on their feet and not be "board swapper" caliber technicians.

One day while talking to my brother, he was relating an interview experience. Please excuse the language, but this is his exact words (renegade runs in the family sorry!). He gets finished with this particular interview and he looks the soon to be employee in the eye and says, "Are you a 25,000 dollar a year mother f*<ker, or 35,000 dollar a year mother f*<ker?"

The candidate chose the higher of the two values and was put to work within the week. My brother soon realized that this person was a valuble employee, but skill wise he was more of an apprentice, not a full blown tech. So within the month, my brother called him into the office and gave him two choices. He could stay on as a $25,000 apprentice and learn the tricks of the trade or pack up and leave. I'll have to ask my brother what eventually happened, but if the guy was smart, he took the downgrade in position. If there ever was a place to learn how to be a master at repairing lap tops, this was it.

I think employers are always looking to grow their employees into the corporate culture and this is obviously best done from within the company. Inflating ones experience will allways backfire, especially in today's fast moving, competitive environment. I think honesty and knowing yourself real well, can help overcome some job qualification requirements, especially when the recruiter sees potential in the applicant.

I have a friend who is a college grad and laid off engineer. Currently he is working on his FAA riggers ticket and packing parachutes at our local drop zone. I think that this shows he has the ability to learn, can think critically and is progressive in nature. But he has a bit of a problem with self esteem right now and is bashfull about applying for jobs in the engineering world.

He asked me what I thought about this particular position open at a local engineering firm, which he openly stated that he didn't feel he had the confidence in his background to fill the position. He also said that he really did feel that he would like to work for this company.

I told him to go ahead and apply for the position and to honestly and openly state his weeknesses and strengths and let them decide. I also told him that he should put in his cover letter, his interest in the company and state that he felt he would be interested in other positions that may come open in the future or could possibly be open, but not annouced by the company in this ad. He didn't pursue this and I really felt that a progressive company could use a young man like my friend, because he is the type that can learn and grow with company.

I hope my post related to yours, as I have been hired several times to fill positions with no skills whatsoever in what those companies did. I do believe that being honest at the interview regarding my qualifications, was overshadowed by a proven ability to learn, a track record of good work ethics and an ability to work in a team environment.

I believe that being honest at an interview concerning ones strengths and weaknesses, can get a person a lot further than inflating them. You might not get the position you applied for, but a foot in the door at lower position may just turn out to be a gold mine.

 

[the_dimwit]

Honesty

FN FAL, Kathy,

I can relate here. I remember starting out in my career, and dealing with the infamous catch-22: How does one get experience if one cannot get that "first job?" After attending numerous interviews and learning what not to say, I eventually landed my first job. The job was not as glamorous as I had originally wanted, but it gave me time and resume material, which I parlayed into a much better job.

I have found that honesty is best, especially in my field (computer/network engineering). Technical interviews will always rat the liar out, and can sometimes ruin credibility.

My 2 cents...

--Dim

 

[Resume Writer]

Dim and FN FAL,

My response to this issue is long, but I believe it will bring out some good points.

I agree with many aspects of this article. However, one of the things that I teach my clients is how to relate their current background to the potential requirements of a new position. Most of the time, past behavior predicts future performance.

However, sometimes a person may not have direct experience in an area, but if they have the ability to learn quickly and will do whatever it takes to acquire that skill, then they should emphasize that ability to a potential interviewer and the benefit the employer would receive by hiring them. Let me provide an example.

When I first graduated from college, I was interviewing for a Management position in retail with a Fortune 500 company. The District Personnel Manager that interviewed me was concerned because I had no retail experience. I turned this around on him and told him the benefit; they could train me any way they wanted because I had no "preconceived notions" of how a retail operation should be run. This single statement garnered me the job. I was very successful in that company and ended up running the personnel department for two different stores.

However, this might only work in entry level positions. If it is a specialized industry, such as aviation or technology, it is more difficult to "claim" competency in an area of expertise.

Many employers want you to hit the ground running and do not have time to train a candidate. Where I have seen this most prevalent is in my work with recruiters. When an employer hires them to find a candidate, that person needs to have the exact skills the employer is looking for because they need someone right away that can make a difference in their operation. An employer is not going to pay a recruiter to find them someone to train; they can do that on their own!

In FN FAL's story about the $25k to $35k kind of person, I think it is a natural assumption on the part of the candidate to put their best foot forward. I think the way I would have approached this same situation as the Hiring Manager would have been to ask the candidate why they believe they should receive a salary that is higher. That way the interviewer can ascertain the true level of the candidates experience. FN's brother actually wasted money for his company by not gaining a true representation of the candidates skill level through effective questioning.

Regarding your friend that is packing parachutes, FN, I work with many people that do not realize their value in the marketplace. In many instances, my time is spent helping a candiate realize their value. The comment I hear most often is that they did not really realize the depth of experience they possess. We are taught at an early age to not "brag" about our accomplishments. While this may be annoying in a social situation, the interview is an opportunity to sell your strengths while you are selling the employer on the fact that you are a good fit for their company.

Here is another personal story I would like to tell. I was applying for a position as a Small Business Development Center Director for the Small Business Administration. These centers provide counseling to small businesses in the areas of marketing, sales, business plan development and accounting. I had a great deal of experience in all of those areas, except accounting, as I had taught numerous classes for them in the past and worked in those capacities in the business world.

I made it to the final interview and it was between myself and another candidate. When they asked me what area I was not as comfortable as I would like to be, I answered honestly that it was accounting. I am not an accountant by trade, but I am smart enough to surround myself with individuals who possess that strength and I let them know that. What I felt to be the strength in that situation, which was the ability to source people with expertise, apparently was not seen the same way! I did not get the position and that was fine with me. Being selected as one of the two final candidates was a great honor for me.

One of the areas I always ask my clients about is their ability to speak a foreign language. If they say speak a language, I really qualify them as to "how much" of that language they speak. I never want my clients to paint themselves into a corner, and it would be deceptive to put something like that on a resume if they can only ask where the bathroom is and order a beer!!

Kathy