Should You Lie On An Interview

This article provides information on Should You Lie On An Interview

We’ve all been there-we’re in an interview, and someone asks us a question, and we are tempted to lie or-at the very least-embellish our qualifications or experience for the sake of seeming more qualified; so we can get the job. Whether you’ve done it or not, you may wonder how much embellishment is ok and if that’s even ok in a job interview. Well, we all know that we aren’t supposed to lie, but most of us have exaggerated the truth for the sake of a job. Below, we examine why lying doesn’t work, and how to answer those tough questions that you’re tempted to lie about.

Title
One of the most common aspects of a person’s career history that they lie about is their title at various positions in their past. Perhaps, you were an associate and decide to call yourself a specialist in your field. As long as your new and embellished title reflects responsibilities that you were actually responsible for, then it really is ok to create a title that is different from the one you were originally given. This said, do not stretch it too far-so far that if the prospective employer decided to call and inquire about your position; your past employer, would not have a clue what they were talking about; so use discretion and common sense in your retitling of past positions, so that you do not get caught looking like a liar by a prospective employer.

Responsibilities
Closely tied to that of your title is that of your previous position responsibilities. This is one area that you cannot embellish; and this is for two reasons. First, your responsibilities are the tasks that you conduct every day-and if you have never done them, and your new employer expects you to know how, you will be caught in your life. Second, if your prospective employer decides to do a reference check-they almost always do-to find out the nature of your responsibilities, they will find out that you never had those responsibilities, and lied.

Salary
This is one of the toughest areas of truth that applicants deal with when trying to decide to tell the truth or lie: salary. Often, people want to make a lot more than what they were making and so embellish their previous salary to make this more possible. Is this effective? No. It is never a good idea to lie about salary, as it can be checked with your previous employers. This said, it is better to focus on the truth and then, be able to explain why you deserve the huge hike in pay. This can be explained through skills learned, experience gained, hats worn, etc etc.

Industry Interest
There are a number of reasons for a person to search for a job in a different industry than their own, but every employer wants to see that you have a solid and avid interest in theirs. In this case, even if you are just looking for any job, you can’t say this. Instead, you have to cultivate an embellishment of your industry interest, so that they know they aren’t hiring someone who will likely bail the position as soon as something that interests them comes along.