Why No One Can Tell The Truth in Their Resume

Let's begin with that you should always tell the truth in their #resume.

Lying is never a good idea, and you can pretty much count on getting caught at some point. The question is when.

But there's a darker side to writing one's career story in a resume that involves NOT telling the truth too.

Job candidates end up performing a delicate dance between what's true and can be said and what's untrue and can't be revealed.

Are you confused yet?

Join the club!

There are a lot of verboten topics that involve NOT being truthful in your resume but the best way to avoid speaking about it is to not mention it at all.

Examples include:

* A boss that was so toxic that you ended up leaving the job.

* You are past what is considered your "prime" and therefore a target of age discrimination but you have a wealth of knowledge.

* A co-worker was out to get you.

* The company was run by unethical crooks.

* You got fired for being a whistleblower and doing the right thing.

You get the drift.

We all have to wear masks at times to get through the bad stuff we are currently going through or survived in the past.

When pressed in an interview as to why we left a company, it's all that we can do to not tell the truth about what REALLY happened.

It's a bad idea to spill the beans in an attempt to make yourself look better in what might be a "cluckerfust" of a situation. Hint: You always come out looking bad, especially if it looks like you are trying to justify yourself.

There are ways to work around this.

But what is critical is that you have to remember the end goal: Finding a new job.

That means not unpacking your baggage in your resume and telling the truth.

It means focusing on what the target employer wants to know and crafting a meaningful story around that, and stepping around the bad stuff.

Sometimes, when writing your short narrative about your tenure at a company, you can drop hints such as "earned reputation as go-to expert before company was acquired."

This is a subtle way of saying that you performed well until the new owner took over and cleaned house, which isn't your fault.

My advice is to think long and hard about what you want to say and subtle ways of saying it.

Or, as our mothers used to remind us: If you don't have something nice to say, then don't say it at all.

That way, you are only focused on telling the truth that matters to a potential employer, and moving past the bad stuff.