Comment Re:so what is the harm in putting fake BA / BS ont (Score 1) 243
I have worked in HR for the past 15 years and I know that it is fairly common here to have a rant at them so I normally skip the threads that go off on one - but it is nice to see some common sense on it for a change. There is a huge difference between being creative on your CV and lying, if you get caught lying (and about big things like degrees there is a fairly good chance you will) then in my experience you will be out immediately. Many companies use external security checkers to validate key information on the people we are going to offer to - this is not a hidden process as candidates are normally asked to sign up to allow security checks. Certainly in the EU I think there has to be candidate approval but declining to sign for the security check almost certainly means you won't get an offer.
HR tends to screen on the requirements provided by the business, even though they may have a reasonable understanding of the requirements of a role it is the manager who really knows them so if "Excel" is specified then "Excel" will be looked for - some companies even use external agencies to pre-screen applicant CVs and they will probably be much more rule bound than internal HR.
When you tailor a CV for a job application (and tweaking your CV for the specifics of the role really helps) then make sure you hit as many of the requirements as possible, if it mentions "Excel" then when discussing relevant experience be creative and talk about using "Excel and other spreadsheets", refer to experience of "Office" even if it Open / Libre rather than Microsoft. You want to tick as many boxes on the initial scanning of your CV as you can - and initially it will just be a scan, it won't get scrutinised properly till after the first reduction. That may sound harsh, but I have certainly seen times when the number of CVs per job that come in are ridiculous and (when I was in the UK) people on unemployment benefit had to apply for jobs to maintain some of their benefits. We had a guy whose only experience was a fork lift truck driver who would apply for every single job we posted (Marketing Director, IT Support etc) and I am pretty sure it was only because he had to be able to show the unemployment office he was applying for jobs.
Once you get past the selection of CVs that are worth looking at it is much more likely that they will be filtered by someone who:
a) reads through the whole thing rather than scanning it (CV's the size of a small novel probably never make it this far either)
b) has a decent understanding of the job requirements (either the manager or an HR Officer who understands the managers area of the business)
They may (or may not) recognise that you are hedging round some of the requirements but they also get the opportunity to read your experience in detail and weigh up that as well. Again, if you get called to interview you need to be open, if asked, about how much of your experience with spreadhseets is Excel and how much is Lotus 1-2-3 / Calc etc but at that stage you have the opportunity to sell yourself face to face.
I have seen examples of people who lied about qualifications etc but got through the interview and offer stage - when the security checks came back and showed the truth they were simply dismissed (the security checks can take long enough that the offer has been made and accepted in the meantime).
HR tends to screen on the requirements provided by the business, even though they may have a reasonable understanding of the requirements of a role it is the manager who really knows them so if "Excel" is specified then "Excel" will be looked for - some companies even use external agencies to pre-screen applicant CVs and they will probably be much more rule bound than internal HR.
When you tailor a CV for a job application (and tweaking your CV for the specifics of the role really helps) then make sure you hit as many of the requirements as possible, if it mentions "Excel" then when discussing relevant experience be creative and talk about using "Excel and other spreadsheets", refer to experience of "Office" even if it Open / Libre rather than Microsoft. You want to tick as many boxes on the initial scanning of your CV as you can - and initially it will just be a scan, it won't get scrutinised properly till after the first reduction. That may sound harsh, but I have certainly seen times when the number of CVs per job that come in are ridiculous and (when I was in the UK) people on unemployment benefit had to apply for jobs to maintain some of their benefits. We had a guy whose only experience was a fork lift truck driver who would apply for every single job we posted (Marketing Director, IT Support etc) and I am pretty sure it was only because he had to be able to show the unemployment office he was applying for jobs.
Once you get past the selection of CVs that are worth looking at it is much more likely that they will be filtered by someone who:
a) reads through the whole thing rather than scanning it (CV's the size of a small novel probably never make it this far either)
b) has a decent understanding of the job requirements (either the manager or an HR Officer who understands the managers area of the business)
They may (or may not) recognise that you are hedging round some of the requirements but they also get the opportunity to read your experience in detail and weigh up that as well. Again, if you get called to interview you need to be open, if asked, about how much of your experience with spreadhseets is Excel and how much is Lotus 1-2-3 / Calc etc but at that stage you have the opportunity to sell yourself face to face.
I have seen examples of people who lied about qualifications etc but got through the interview and offer stage - when the security checks came back and showed the truth they were simply dismissed (the security checks can take long enough that the offer has been made and accepted in the meantime).
