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Fast Company
04-06-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
Is it okay to lie (a little) on your résumé?
Welcome to Pressing Questions, Fast Company's workplace advice column. Every week, deputy editor Kathleen Davis, host of The New Way We Work podcast, will answer your biggest and most pressing workplace questions. Q: Is it okay to lie (a little) on your résumé? A: I would hope that the answer to this question is obvious, but perhaps not. Lying in some form, whether it's inflating your job title or experience, exaggerating your skills, or fudging employment or graduation dates is way more common than you might think. In fact, a 2023 ResumeLab survey found that 70% of job applicants have lied on their résumés. For the record let me be clear, lying on your résumé—no matter how big or small the lie is or what it's about—is never, ever, ever a good idea. Like ever. Just because everyone else is doing it doesn't mean you should. The risk just isn't worth it. Very few things aren't discoverable from a quick search and in most industries professional networks can be small and paths are bound to cross. For example if you lie about your employment dates or role in a certain company, your potential employer can easily find out the truth and, no matter how impressive you are, you have broken their trust and ruined any future employment chances with that company. Even if your lies aren't discovered during the hiring process, they can haunt you later on. Did you list skills that you don't really have? Did you say that you know a software system or tool that you aren't really that familiar with? Those mistruths will come back to bite you as soon as you're on the job. All lies come to light eventually and even if they don't, you'll have to remember them and stay on top of the cover-up for your entire tenure. But really, lying isn't necessary. Here are a few legitimate ways to redo your résumé in honest ways that will smooth over the things you might be tempted to lie about. Explain the gaps in your career history I gave this advice when addressing if your résumé needs to be one page: Hardly anyone has a linear career path and you aren't fooling anyone by glossing over a year or more. If you freelanced, cared for family, or volunteered during times you weren't traditionally employed, that all counts. In other words, rather than changing or omitting dates, address your career gaps either on your résumé or in your cover letter and frame them as strengths. Show off your accomplishments Instead of inflating your past job titles, talk up what you've done, the impact you've made, and who you've worked with. This is something Fast Company contributor and résumé expert Donna Svei calls 'affiliative branding.' Here's the example she gives for how it works: 'An early-career client I once worked with wanted a specific job but couldn't land an interview. We analyzed the posting and saw that the job involved working with well-known artists. My client had that impressive experience but hadn't mentioned it in their résumé. We wrote a bullet that named a few of the top artists they had worked for (affiliative branding) and described my client's wins. They got the job three weeks later.' I got into this in my advice on what to cut from your résumé. Sometimes in the quest to sound impressive, candidates clutter up their résumés with a bunch of unneeded hyperbole that isn't an honest representation of their skills or experience. Trim all of that junk and replace it with facts that are presented in a persuasive way. Svei recommends checking that those facts are presented in a positive light. ' When a fact is described negatively, I ask myself, 'can I reframe this as a positive?' It might be as simple as changing 'reduced turnover to 10%,' to 'increased team retention to 90%,'' she says.
Fast Company
28-05-2025
- General
- Fast Company
What should I do if I think my coworkers are gossiping about me?
Welcome to Pressing Questions, Fast Company's workplace advice column. Every week, deputy editor Kathleen Davis, host of The New Way We Work podcast, will answer your biggest and most pressing workplace questions. Q: What should I do if I think my coworkers are gossiping about me? A: In past columns I've said that much of office life can feel like high school, and this is the ultimate example. This is a situation that feels awful but that you have little control over. So while you can't control other people, you can control your own actions and reactions. Here are a few things you can do: Don't engage in negative gossip yourself 'Gossip is an important part of human communication,' says Jason Morgan, vice president of behavioral intelligence at Aware. It's a way that people build relationships, feel more connected, and help soothe their anxiety. In other words, we are social animals that need to talk to each other and, often, about each other. But that doesn't mean that the content of our gossip has to be vicious or hurtful. You don't need to bring someone down to bring yourself up. If you think your coworkers are talking negatively about you, your first step should be to evaluate your own gossiping tendencies. You're never going to stop people from talking, but the more negativity you put out into the world, the more that's likely to come back to you. Subscribe to the Daily newsletter. Fast Company's trending stories delivered to you every day Privacy Policy | Fast Company Newsletters Use gossip as a force for good Good gossip is beneficial to everyone's well being. Fast Company contributor and behavioral scientist Art Markman points out that gossip can bring people together or it can create factions. Lead by example and start the kind of gossip that makes people feel better. 'When we celebrate other people's successes and positive life events, we are bringing our community together,' Markman explains. 'When we let team members know about a sad experience in the life of a colleague, it can create outpourings of sympathy and attempts to help. These are quite positive uses of gossip that can improve the overall sense of community.' Deal with it directly If trying to use office gossip as a force for good isn't working and your coworkers are still saying negative things about you, you need to decide if it's worth intervening. If the gossip is annoying but ignorable, then do your best to turn the other cheek. If it's impacting your daily well-being, you have a few choices: 1. Confront it with humor. Sometimes taking a lighter approach might be more effective than an awkward conversation. For example if you overhear two colleagues whispering about how you are a know-it-all, you can say something like, 'oh, tell me about it—that Kate, she's a real pill!' That will shame them enough to either stop their gossip, or at least be more discreet. 2. Take it as feedback. You can take a more mature approach and view the content of their gossip as feedback and consider some behavior changes. (Maybe you do interrupt too much?) 3. Have an uncomfortable conversation. If you're feeling brave enough you can confront the gossip directly. After all, we aren't in high school anymore and hopefully in the years since you've gained some self-assuredness. You can start it off with something like 'I've heard you and Dan talking about me and I just want to let you know that I'd love to hear your feedback directly.' 4. Talk to your boss. This is generally the type of problem you can handle yourself, but if it rises to the level of creating a toxic work environment, you can get your boss involved. Just make sure you've already tried to take some steps to mitigate it yourself. Want more about office gossip? Here you go: Three steps to end office gossip How work gossip has changed in the age of hybrid work How to make office gossip your ally This is when gossip can be healthy in the workplace
