August 2009 - Page 2 of 2 - Palladian Career Resources

Fraudulently Padding a Resume

How to land a job you are completely unqualified to perform (do no try this at home… unless you want go to jail). This system is proven effective (especially step 8) and was used by a woman in Connecticut.

How to land a job you are completely unqualified to perform (do no try this at home… unless you want go to jail):

Step One: Make up a bunch of stuff that isn’t true and put it on your resume
Step Two: Create a fake industry association and give it an official sounding name
Step Three: Announce you won a major award from your fake organization
Step Four: Start sending out resumes
Step Five: Tell employers you lost the supporting information such as licenses, diplomas, etc.
Step Six: Plan an awards banquet for your fake organization and invite 30+ people, including your perspective boss
Step Seven: Give the people attending the banquet scripts telling them what to say and how to compliment you in front of your perspective boss
Step Eight: Leverage your dishonesty to get free room and board for three to five years from the state prison system

This system is proven effective (especially step 8) and was used by a woman in Connecticut.

Unfortunately, there are people who think this eight step plan is a good idea. If you’re looking for a job and are missing a key credential, it can be very frustrating. There are reasons why certain credentials are required – for example, an RN in a doctor’s office should have a nursing license. For one “Nurse of the Year,” the lack of credentials didn’t stop her, at least initially.

Betty Lichtenstein was recently arrested for illegally using the title “Registered Nurse” and reckless endangerment and criminal impersonation. Various news outlets are reporting how Betty claimed she lost her RN license. To get around this, she created a fictitious “Connecticut Nursing Association” and gave herself the Nurse of the Year award. She staged a dinner with about 30 people where her perspective boss could see the award presented to her (the dinner cost her over $2,000).

I see a fair bit of lying and deception on resumes by job seekers. The big stuff, like fake degrees is easy to spot. For other lies, it takes a little more work to uncover. This is why most employers, particularly larger companies, will not shortcut their background checks.

Lying to obtain a position as a medical practitioner carries with it significantly greater criminal implications than many other fields. In Lichtenstein’s case, she’s looking at the possibility of 5 years in jail. There are a wide range of laws that prohibit lying employment applications or defrauding companies or government entities to get a job.

Additionally, the news articles published on Betty’s story will stay on the internet forever. A simple google search of her name will uncover these stories and will make her ability to get a job much more difficult. Who want’s to hire someone who would lie to this degree.

The most common lie I find on resumes (mainly because it’s the easiest and fastest to check) is the use of a fake degree to boost a person’s education. There are tons of diploma mills that will sell a Bachelor’s, Master’s or PhD. Some offer overnight shipping and next day service. All you have to do is write a check. These are easy to spot. Just go to the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) and search for the school (http://www.chea.org/search/search.asp).

If you want to learn more about Betty Lichtenstein, “Nurse of the Year from the Connecticut Nursing Association”, check out http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local-beat/Nurse-Betty-Plays-Pretend-52626832.html

Maintenance Tech Resume

A resume I read from a medical equipment technician. The resume illustrates a few of the common mistakes many job seekers make.

First, the job seeker failed to list his skills. Every job seeker needs to highlight their strongest skills on their resume. For equipment technicians, this is even more important. With technical positions, the technical skill of the job seeker is a major factor, and often is the most important assessment criteria. Omitting this information will hurt the candidate’s chances.

The job seeker could correct this by adding a skills section showing the specific types of equipment and technologies he has proficiency with. Adding some of the training classes he has taken would also help. In 25 years of operating and maintaining high tech medical equipment, the job seeker doesn’t show a single training class where he updated his skills.

The second change the job seeker needs to make relates to the responsibilities he has had. His resume has nothing more than a list of responsibilities. There are no accomplishments listed. Most hiring managers will assume he has either been unsuccessful or minimally successful in his career as a result. Below is are the bullets from his most recent position:

Maintain and troubleshoot anesthesia equipment and other medical electronics in the hospital
Provide clinical assessments during surgical procedures for anesthesia staff and residents when needed
Perform in-service training for anesthesia students on a variety of electronics equipment
Develop equipment maintenance procedures for department

For an equipment tech, it’s difficult to imagine someone else in the same role not having essentially the same responsibilities. The job seeker has succeeded in making himself a commodity no different from anyone else. This will not help him get hired.

I expect there are a number of accomplishments the job seeker could list. For example, he could expand on how he developed maintenance procedures. Giving a specific example of this, including the type of equipment, the scope of the procedures he developed and some measure of how change contributed to the organization would make a great impression.

A few questions this job seeker could answer that would lead to the type of impressive content that would get a hiring manager excited are:

When have you developed or changed a maintenance procedure resulting in lower overall maintenance costs?
When have you improved the performance of equipment you were maintaining?
When have you improved the reliability of the equipment you were maintaining?
When have you developed a faster process for maintaining equipment?
When have you modified equipment to better suit the needs of medical personnel using the equipment?

As it stands, a hiring manager who is concerned about some of these questions (cutting costs, improving performance and reliability, etc.) will assume the answer to each question is “never.” That’s not the impression this job seeker wants to make. Fortunately, the solution is easy. Add a couple bullets points showing the contribution the job seeker made.

Sales Tips for a Job Seeker

A job search is a sales activity. You are selling yourself and trying to persuade a company to spend tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for your time and effort. You need to present an advertising, marketing and sales material to get land an interview and need to make a better sales presentation than your competition. If you don’t, someone else will land the sale and get hired.

There are a lot of people who detest sales. They think it’s dishonest and unethical. This view is completely wrong, but it exists in our society. If you hold this view and refuse to try to sell yourself in your job search, you will be placing a huge obstacle in your path. Selling is an activity that helps the buyer. Buyers are not experts on the products they are buying – the sales people are. A good sales person will help a person find the right product or service to buy. You need to do the same in your job search.

A hiring manager is a buyer. The hiring process is designed to assess candidates, learning as much as possible, so the hiring manager can make the best decision. You need to make sure you are providing the information the hiring manager needs and show them the value you offer. If you don’t do this, you won’t get hired. There are a few key steps in the sales process you need to execute effectively:

Give a Reason To Buy: The number one task in your job search is to give a hiring manager a reason to hire you. This may seem obvious, but it is amazing how few people actually do this. You need to show very clearly why you will provide more value to the hiring manager and employer than your competition. Imagine going into a car dealer and the sales person shows you a car. You ask why you should buy it, and the only answer is the car drives and will get you places. This is what many job seekers do. Their sales pitch is that they can do the job. Meeting the absolute minimum requirements is not a sales pitch. This is essentially saying “I offer the least value possible while still being able to do the job.” Not very impressive.

Know Your Limitations: You are not an ideal fit for every job. There are plenty of positions where other candidates have a better combination of skills and abilities. This isn’t a bad thing. You can’t bet the best at everything. You need to be the best at something. Too many people try to cover every base possible. Focus on what you are truly good at doing. If a hiring manager wants someone with a different skill set, be honest. You won’t land that job, but your honesty can make an impression and lead you to other positions with an organization. The hiring manager may have the perfect job for you. If you aren’t honest about your strengths and weaknesses, you may never discover this position.

Focus on Benefits: One of the most basic lessons taught in sales courses is to focus on benefits not features. In a job search, this is showing the contributions you will make. To do this, you need to show the hiring manager similar contributions you have made in the past. For example, in some cereal ads, the actors talk about how after eating one type of cereal, their cholesterol was lower, and their family was happier as a result. Can you show how you exceed the expectations of a former boss and delivered specific results to the company? This is what a hiring manager wants – the results that will allow them beat their budget and goals. If you show how you will do this, you will be much more likely to get hired.

Listen: Great sales people listen much more than they talk. They learn as much about the needs of the customer as they can. Because interviews are typically a series of questions by the interviewer and answers by the job seeker, it may seem difficult to listen to the needs of the hiring manager. It’s much easier to learn what a hiring manager wants if you put forth a little effort. The first step is to network with people who understand the company and job and learn as much as you can. This will give you insight into the hiring manager’s perspective. During the interview, pay attention to the type of questions being asked and ask questions to learn about the position. For example:

What are your goals for this position?
What is the biggest challenge for this position?
What do you want to see a person in this role accomplish in the first 3 months? 6 months? Year?
How will I be assessed and evaluated in this role?

Answers to these questions will show you what a hiring manager wants. Listen closely to the answers and show how you will meet these needs.

Follow Up: Good sales people follow up, even after being rejected. Make sure you send thank you notes after interviews, and stay in touch with hiring managers. It may take months or years, but each relationship you develop and maintain has the potential to lead to offer.

If you focus on selling your potential, you will maximize your chance of success. If you don’t want to do this, you will help your competition gain the edge over you.