Exaggerating Past Work Experience on Resume
When writing up resume descriptions on past work experience, how much would you say you all exaggerate? Not lying, but just making your responsibilities look more than they were. Obviously someone interviewing you for a job could just quiz you on what you did, but is it common place for the interviewer to contact your boss at the previous job and ask about the work experience and quality of work? I'm asking this question in the scenario of looking for a full time job out of college and lightly embellishing some internship work.
I wouldn't embellish too much. If you said you were doing DCFAs and due diligence and were really making copies and mailing letters, you are going to get caught when they ask you an analytical question.
don't exaggerate your tasks, but do use power verbs to emphasize your skills. If there was something exceptional that you did, or an example where you stepped up, list it, but be prepared to elaborate during your interview.
They expect you to do boring and less glamorous work as an intern. You'll learn a lot and have a lot to offer, but they don't expect you to be able to lead deals all by yourself. Remember, an ibanking analyst position is mainly a support position. They're looking for candidates who are bright, hard-working and eager to learn. It isn't always common place for an interviewer to contact your previous boss, but if you worked on wall street, chances are someone might know someone and it might just come up in a conversation.
Good luck!
How can I say this...hmmm.... well I'll just spit it out:
"Embellish everything"
The most succesful people in life are basically LIARS...pure and simple, plain and pointed, straightforward and to the point.
Do the banks call up your former employer? What if one worked at a company as an assistant (or something to that effect) and listed their position as an intern? Is that ok?
Resume Embellishments (Originally Posted: 11/05/2009)
I've seen some postings here from time to time about exaggerating experiences on resumes. Some people will tell you that it's extremely common and maybe even necessary for super competitive jobs like the ones people here are interested. We posted a scenario of a description from a resume vs what the person really did and asked people if they thought it was ok or not. Take a look and see if you're doing anything like this on your resume.
Career Dilemma: It's OK to Fib on My Resume, Right? - http://bit.ly/YsvOO
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Nothing wrong with making your experiences sound more impressive than they are, but this person straight out lied about what she did. Not acceptable to take credit for thigns that you didn't do.
agreed. but if this person didnt actually do these things but can speak about them like she did how would they ever even know? its not like HR calls and asks about every bullet on the resume right?
The problem with "no one will ever find out" is that people usually do find out, and the consequences really suck.
Will they ask about EVERY bullet point?
No, of course not...but if what you've written on your resume sounds sufficiently different from the tasks your employer references are describing, then that's cause for concern and an ultimate ding.
could not agree more.
How much can(should) I exaggerate my experience in other countries? (Originally Posted: 01/12/2014)
Hey people. I just talked to a alumni in IB, who asked me to exaggerate more about my experience. For example, I started a small biz in SE Asia and sell my products to a few surrounding countries (I did not really register a company or set up any website. Neither did I hire anyone). So his suggestion was to put it as CEO and Founder, then emphasize even more about it in my resume, as no one will check if there is really a company there. In addition, I may start an "M&A internship" at a BS company near my school, which is nothing more than cold-calling but registered under IB. He told me this internship is gonna suck but I can lie about it coz no one in NY or SF will know about this comp.
So overall, will people really check in detail the scale of the biz I did in SE Asia, and will the HR or Admin people of the companies I interview with later on call the BS IB company about my internship? If no, how much should I exaggerate about it?
Any kinds of help or comments about other stuff on my resume will be very much appreciated as well.
Thanks in advance!!!
Background checks will be limited to "did X person work here for this time period".
Thank you Asatar. I had no idea if they will ever ask for a reference or any contact point to check everything I have said about the experience. For example, if I worked as research intern and did nothing but writing industry reports, should I include things I know how to do but never did for that company(like valuation, etc)?
Anything you write on your CV is fair game and expect to be questioned extensively on it.
Help is this exaggeration on resume? (Originally Posted: 09/10/2010)
On my resume I wrote "Evaluated buyer/acquisition targets for strategic fit, etc." based on making profiles on them with descriptions of what they do / revenue /etc. Is this an exaggeration or legit?
Dude.....nobody cares about your bullets and nobody is going to go line by line on every resume to verify it is legit.
use #s in there to make it sound more legit.
Evaluated 5 buyer/acquisition targets for strategic fit, presented 2 to MD resulting in a $5Bn purchase of major Swiss Pharmaceutical company and a personal commission of $247,652.73
bump -- any serious thoughts?
bump
People Exaggerating Experience (Originally Posted: 02/07/2010)
This question arises because a lot of my buddies work internships during the summer or the school year where they only go to work ~5-15 hours a week... but you'd never know that looking at their resume.
Would it look odd if on my resume I put the number of hours worked per job? I am currently a full time student working ~40 hours a week and it's been affecting my academic performance slightly, more importantly I just want to highlight my ability to multi-task.
EX: Small Unknown XYZ Fund, Inc. Chicago, IL Spring Intern – Fixed Income (40 hours / week) Jan 2010 – Present -Description A -Description B -Description C
Even Smaller Unknown Fund, Inc. Chicago, IL Summer Intern – Cash Equities (65 hours / week) May 2009 – Aug 2009 -Description A -Description B -Description C
Yea, it would probably look strange... I have never seen anything like that on a resume.
Do not put it on your resume... just explain the hours you were doing if they ask you in the interview.
Yeah, mention multitasking in your cover letter and when you get to interviews, def not on the resume.
I really appreciate the feedback, thanks!
generally, when looking at your resume, the hours won't tell them much. the things you did/achieved in said jobs will. if they're observant enough, they'll notice that you achieved all that during your studies. besides that, you can stick something to the effect of "worked half/full time during studies (avg of 40 hrs per week) and maintained 3.X gpa" in your cover letter
Resume exaggeration, Internship or work experience (Originally Posted: 08/22/2017)
I'm applying for 2018 summer internships in the UK and I was wondering to what degree can I exaggerate on my CV? I've seen a few people on this forum say that as long as I'm not lying about where I worked or what I did, it's fine to exaggerate if I can back it up in an interview.
Example:
I spent a week at a wealth management firm doing work shadowing then another week working in their investment management team. Most of the work could be described as operational, like analysing securities on bloomberg to categorize them and copying reports into a template. Some of the work was more relevant, for example, I had to analyse a few financial statements to find the relevant figures to input into a DCF model. Would it be fine if for this I wrote "Assisted equity researchers in the due diligence process for DCF valuations by analysing financial statements"? Also, would be too deceptive if I wrote "investment management intern", even though it was just two weeks and more work experience than an internship?
This is my CV as it stands now, is there anything in particular that sticks out that I'm likely to get called out on in an interview?
https://drive.google(dot)com/open?id=0B2q6iHHOZNaEaHJNT2VLcU14dGc
bump
I wouldn't call any two week stint an internship, more of a shadowing/learning opportunity. The way you described your assistance on a DCF valuation is fine. Resume looks ok except for how you labeled your most recent position. If any firm reaches out to your past employer asking about your internship role, odds are they state you weren't an intern and you lose all hope with that potential firm. Idk a lot about UK specific programs, but would highly recommend labeling it as something else.
Fudging Experience (Originally Posted: 08/02/2017)
Is there any way to fudge personal experience into a resume or cover letter?
The biggest problem I come across is that I didn't get an internship and now that's causing me even more trouble while trying for FT now that I've graduated. However, I spend a lot of my free time going over certain companies releases and do some basic modeling including DCF and 3 statement projections. Is it worth noting in some kind of way as a way to bypass that god damn experience filter?
Edit to clear up confusion: Not talking about putting that I have licenses that I don't have or that I worked at companies that I didn't. I'm talking about spinning personal research and modeling into experience.
If your job requires a securities license, you will have to state, under penalty of perjury, your full work history. Your firm will also likely conduct a background check on you.
Be humble, be honest. Take CFA level 1, and be creative about ways to break in.
Don't put anything on your resume that you actually haven't done, but the **phrasing ** of what you did can be changed to make it sound like the work you did was more applicable than it may actually be.
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