Junior journalism major
“My resume says I have marketing experience. I have zero marketing experience.”
I overheard three students discussing the blatant lies on their resumes at McKeldin Library last week, and it got me thinking.
Many of us are guilty of embellishing a little bit on our resumes. Whether it’s exaggerating how much time you actually spent working at your internship versus how much you were fetching coffee, or if all those service hours you worked weren’t all spent doing service, most of us can find ourselves stretching the truth.
But where do you draw the line? When does it stop being okay? What is the turning point when “fluff” turns into an absolute lie?
It’s more obvious than you think. Let’s start with the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth: How did you really spend your time?
Clearly, honesty is the best policy here. Most internships, especially if you put forth good effort, will let you do more than just fetch coffee. In journalism, you’ll be able to write and produce stories. In business, you’ll probably be attending and taking notes at meetings. In engineering, you might get to help out with some design yourself or check over other people’s work.
These represent best-case scenarios. If you did not have the opportunity to do these “real-world” tasks, then don’t say you did. However, if all you did was get people food or surf the Internet all day, don’t write that either. Put it like this: “Participated in general day-to-day workplace operations, from research to assisting other employees,” or maybe like this: “Assisted with a variety of tasks, from general administrative work to basic project management.”
You’re probably rolling your eyes right now. This statement, although relatively vague, is polished, and while it doesn’t give a glowing portrayal of what your typical workday was actually like, it’s a heck of a lot better than admitting to a true lack of experience.
Granted, if you’re applying for a higher-level internship with such little experience, maybe it’s not really the one for you. You should look toward internships of the same level you applied for previously — just make sure you’ll be able to get a lot more out of it than the last time. This will ultimately save you a lot of embarrassment.
Speaking for myself, internships only work if you bring something to the table. Talk to other employees. Eat lunch with them. Ask questions. Talk to your boss. Go the extra mile. Come in early. Work late. You’ll be sure to get great references and will more than likely gain extra opportunities. And that, after all, is what’s going to impress on a resume anyway.
So to those three students who were sitting at my table that fateful morning in McKeldin: I hope you’re reading this right now, and that you’ll reconsider next time you fake your resume. Some of us out there are working hard to get internships and jobs, and although it’s a tough world, faking it will nine times out of 10 get you fired.
David Oliver is a junior journalism major. He can be reached at opinionumdbk@gmail.com.
