Recruiters, Let’s Be Tactical Not Impractical!

Recruiters, stop coaching candidates to lie, it goes against everything we, or at least we should, stand for! I can’t tell you how many times I have dealt with this recently. A candidate with a resume that just doesn’t seem right and upon some prodding I find that they are fudging things on there at the recommendation of a “Professional” Recruiter. A lot of this deceit circles around jobs that have been short in tenure and how to avoid the stigma that it was all your fault. I have seen many offers stall, get rescinded and even had someone start a job and get fired 3 weeks later when it was uncovered that a candidate has gotten overly creative with their resume. Some of the most common instances are below.

Dates of Employment:

I’ve vented about this topic in previous articles and in my LinkedIn updates. Lying about your dates of employment is probably the easiest thing for a potential employer to uncover, so don’t make this mistake, even if a Recruiter advises you to. 

Leaving your most recent job as Present when you’re no longer working there is dishonest, regardless of it being a week, month or months. If you’re collecting a severance package, that doesn’t mean you’re still employed or technically “on payroll”. While some clients will gravitate towards an employed candidate, making your resume look like you’re an employee when you’re not will make their decision not to move forward with hiring you all the easier when they discover you lied about it.

Expanding employment dates to cover gaps in employment is also not a good idea and claiming not to remember the actual dates and say that you were estimating is also not highly regarded. Most positions require an attention to detail. When you can’t provide that level of detail about your own career, how can they have faith in you to do so with their company’s data?

Any Recruiter who guides you to fudge employment dates is someone who likely doesn’t have a good enough relationship with their clients to go to bat for you and explain why you’re not working. 

Short Term Jobs:

If someone advises you to say that any job under a year was a temporary position, BE CAREFUL. If they happen to do references at the company, it’ll likely come out that you were a permanent employee. Inconsistencies during the hiring process always work against you and raise a much larger red flag than if it was disclosed truthfully. 

Be specific if you can. I realize that sometimes you are not given all the details that resulted in you losing your job. I know an employer can be very vague and tell you your position is being eliminated or it is due to a re-organization, but you’re not sure what that means exactly and can’t explain the business reason for it. It may not look great for you, but if you can provide references that’ll verify it was not due to individual performance, you can often improve your chances of getting the job. 

A good Recruiter can help you to talk about why a position came to an end in a concise, understandable way. We’ve all seen a lot of turbulence in the job market over the years and can explain to our clients about; company relocations, acquisitions, bankruptcies, reorganizations, difficult work environments, buyouts, etc. 

Don’t be ashamed of your career path, just be able to speak to job changes confidently and succinctly. Many of the people you are interviewing with have likely been in a similar situation as least once in their career, so they’ll normally sympathize.

Leaving Jobs Off:

Another gem Recruiters will use to try to avoid having an open communication with their clients is to tell you to leave a short-term job off of your resume. It can seem like a good idea as you’ve only been there for 3 months and realize it is time to go. Two scenarios usually accompany this situation, and both are related to previous topics in this article. First, you’re told to leave it off of your resume and make your previous job to Present. The second is to just leave it off and be truthful about the end date of your last position. the 2nd option is drizzled with some truth, but that doesn’t make it honest. 

You all know my take on saying you’re currently working somewhere that you’re not really working, so I won’t belabor that point. Although I can talk for hours about it……no I won’t belabor it, but I could, and it would be valid.

The 2nd scenario, putting an end date on your last job and leaving your current job off of the resume, can actually work against you more than it will help you. If you left your last job 3,4 months ago and are going to say you’ve been searching all this time and haven’t found anything, you risk the perception that you may not be a great candidate. Especially if we are assuming that employers are judgmental, then we can safely assume that they’ll judge a substantial gap in employment. Additionally, you can easily get caught up in a lie, let me tell you how. When one is fairly new in a position, they don’t accrue much paid time off in the first few months. Going on interviews is normally done during business hours and will require a half-day off in most cases. If a client wants to meet you and they believe you’re not working, they assume that your schedule is flexible. If you’re only available before and after hours, it can signal a problem. 

Another flag is raised if you get through the interview process and are offered a position. How could this be bad, they’re offering you the job, you’re in the clear, right? WRONG! They’re excited to have you join the team and assume you can come aboard next week or the week after at the latest. The flag goes up when an unemployed person needs 2-3 weeks before they can start. You’re a professional and will offer your employer the proper 2 weeks’ notice, aren’t you? If you’re still reading this, you likely are interested in doing the right thing, but now you will need to pile onto the lies by telling your (hopefully) future boss that you have a trip planned, doctor’s appointments, parents’ weekend at your child’s college or any other excuse you can use to put off a start date. Maybe they buy it, and many times they do, BUT is it worth the risk?

I know I prefaced this article by blaming Recruiters for these risky practices, but a lot of people come up with these ideas on their own or through the advice of many others outside the staffing industry. What makes it so frustrating to me is that in my profession people put a lot of faith in our guidance and when I see people guided in such a way it is disheartening as they are being misled and we’re not doing the right thing by our clients who pay a fee for our services. Maybe it’s just me, and if that’s the case, so be it, but I still believe honesty is the best policy.