How much should you inflate your CV?

The past few weeks since I came back into the recruitment scene, I have noticed quite a few complaints from HR managers about inflated CVs. I thought it interesting to find out what they were concerned about. 

Fair enough, you read all about the right way to write a resume, what you should focus on, what you should enhance and how you should say the things you want to say. What you get in the end should be a well-crafted piece to market your skills and experience in your chosen field. 

What actually happens? It seems that many of you may be better students than we thought! The latest concern among time-pressed recruiters is that the CVs submitted do not truly represent the candidate invited for interview. If you state that you were able to manage an extensive project from resource-allocation to budgeting, you have better make sure you can back that up in the interview. 

I remember running screening interviews for a large multinational a year ago. The initial screeners would whittle down the field of candidates by reviewing their CVs by looking at their skills, educational backgrounds and extra-curricular activities. I was actually really amazed at the number of super-candidates emerging from that process. I was regularly slotted to interview students and experienced hires with quite the impressive list of achievements! 

However, during the interview, I was often sorely disappointed. For example, there was a student who was President of many societies and organisations at his university. When I probed him further on his role and achievements within these positions, he told me that there were five members in total, and that he had organised two picnics to local parks. Even though I wanted to find some nugget of brilliance in this candidate by giving him the benefit of the doubt, I emerged from the session disappointed and rather annoyed that he had tried to cheat me as an interviewer. 

Guan, the Chief Structural Engineer at a global luxury car manufacturer in the USA, was telling me about his own experience hiring yesterday. He was looking for senior designers who could hit the ground running, and he invited a candidate who seemed to glow in his resume. What the candidate did not know was that he was going to be tested in his skills. Despite an elaborate enhancement of his design experiences in his CV, when he was put to the test, he could not even get past the first half. When asked why he could not do as his resume dictated, he said: "I could do it, if you gave me instructions on what to do." 

Needless to say, neither my university graduate nor Guan's experienced candidate got called back for a second interview. 

It is important to learn the difference between writing a good honest CV and inflating it. If you do a good job of the former, you will get through based upon your own merits if you are right for the job. If you manage the latter - inflation - you may get your foot in the door for the first round of interviews, but your cover will be quickly blown, and it will leave a very bad taste in the interviewer's mouth. That will most definitely kill your chances of progressing any further, and even ruin the potential to keep a relationship going with the recruiter for future opportunities. 

So be wise and honest when writing your CV. It is not fictional storytelling; it is an autobiography that should know the difference between who you are, and who you wish you could be. The reader will find out by the first chapter.