Excuse me for being blunt, but I'm asking you plain and simple: How Much Should You Lie In Your Effort To Land Your Next Job?

It's a dog eat dog world out there and in today's economy the competition only gets tougher, not easier. You know and I know that when it comes to searching for employment there is no shortage of, shall we say, creative embellishment going on.

A little revisionist history in the school grades department, or a bit of sweetening of the job experience is quite common. And with so many people doing it, the question arises, how thick should you layer it? Obviously not to the point of needing a shovel to extricate your way from the interview room, but isn't a certain amount of exaggeration even expected by the hiring managers and sort of factored into their decision process?

How much is too much lying and how little is too little?

I suppose it's a matter of opinion, and since you are reading this, you must be asking for mine, so here goes: I don't recommend lying at all. Well, I mean certainly not in the corporate world. With the advent of the information age, and with this being an employer's market, it's just too easy to get caught in a web of lies, and there are too many applicants who will be pr oven as honest, for you to go down that tangly road. You'll probably do better showing yourself as a blemished person who tells the truth than an out and out liar. Does that make sense?

Here are some stats to ponder. More than 90% of companies run background checks. More than 80% state that ANY discrepancy between what was filled out on the application and what is found to be reality will automatically toss the applicant out of the running. More than half of all applicants lie on the applications; the kind of lies that can be found out fairly easily.

The quickest way to get taken out of contention is to be proven as one of them. And if you actually tell the truth and nothing but the truth, you are going to be in the minority, and that could place you well above the pack in your chances of getting the job. Of course if you're a convicted cannibal, the truth might set you free, but it's not going to get you hired, either; so as in most areas of life, there are exceptions to the rule.

A less extreme type of exception might be in a situation that's not so corporate. For instance you know someone looking to replace his weed trimmer man for his landscaping biz. You've used your weed trimmer for years, heck decades, but this guy says he's only interested in hiring someone with 7 years professional weed trimmer experience. Now personally, I'd think after 5 or 6 years anyone would get promoted to push mower, but this guy has this need to believe the next person he hires is going to have 7 years of professional weed trimmer experience... and who are you to take that away from him?

Seems to me like you could make up a story about some out of business company you worked for in another state in another era of your life, and the guy isn't going to find out you're lying. So here I'd pose the question, what harm does it do to tell this bizarre character who requires 7 years of professional weed whacking that you had 12 and three quarters years stemming from the mid 70's to the late 80's as head weed trimmer extraordinaire with Ever Grow Green Landscaping Service in Skeeterville, Kansas.

Yeah, it's technically immoral to lie, but it's also immoral to let yourself go hungry or get to the position of begging others to give you what you need.

I hope this helps you in your quest for work. Personally, I don't know why everyone doesn't create their own employment on-line. I have proven to myself that there is a definite process that almost anyone can learn to create a full time income with their computer. There are no 'maybes' about it. It's not a matter of wishful thinking, or hoping and praying. You learn a few basic skills and rinse and repeat and you make money.