During your career you’re going to need help with something and the hardest thing to do might be to find the right place to get that help. These days it isn’t hard to find information online for example but the difficult part can be to find information that is actually correct and helpful.

You can get help but how helpful is it?

Last week I came across one of the more absurd websites I’ve seen in awhile along with an article that the person who ran this website had posted on a major article website that encouraged people to embellish on their resume and basically lie to get ahead. The person suggested that in their experience, they got nowhere in their career and job searches by being honest and found that they had more success by embellishing their accomplishments on their resume.

Notwithstanding the fact that many people do lie in their resumes – and let’s face it, many employers also lie about the jobs they’re hiring for and often conceal things that they don’t want you to know about the job or company that might scare you away – the fact is that that lying or even embellishing your accomplishments is something that can cause you trouble down the line even after you’ve been hired.

Certainly in some positions – if you’re a lawyer or doctor for example – lying and embellishing can end up costing you more than your job…it could result in legal prosecution.

But for people who feel that embellishing or lying in their resume for other types of positions is an acceptable way to approach things I guess the best suggestion I have is to ensure that you’re willing to face the music when the lies come to the forefront as they typically do. After all, if you need to lie to get a job, you’re probably not suited for it and if do end up getting the job, you’re probably going to get exposed at some point.

The point is that getting the wrong information from the wrong person or source can cost you even if you don’t realize it. To use the point above, hiring managers can develop a second sense – as they often have to – when it comes to how much they believe of what a job candidate writes on their resume and says during the interview. I’ve had hiring managers tell me that they didn’t get a good sense of a person they’d interview for a job and in generally had to do with not believing what the person had said in their resume or during the interview.

I’ve also interviewed people where I’ve had the same feeling… I just didn’t get the feeling that the person was being truthful. Just because you lie or embellish doesn’t mean the person reading or hearing the lie will believe it.

We often make assumptions about people we come into contact with and often those assumptions aren’t correct. Like when people assume that the Human Resources rep who interviews them is a useless person who has no real knowledge of the job only to find out that the HR rep used to do the job that the person was interviewing for and in fact knows the job right down to the technical points. I’ve seen that happen.

Or when you interview with someone and assume that they don’t wield much power and take the interview with this person lightly and when you don’t get the job, you never stop to think that perhaps it was this person’s opinion of you who cost you the opportunity.

Perhaps you don’t realize that the secretary or person answering the phones in an office is someone who wields some power in the office and tells your interviewer everything you said or did while you waited in the reception area for your interview and how you spoke loudly on your cellphone while waiting or how you treated the secretary poorly, thinking he or she was unimportant. I’ve seen this happen, too. Often, hiring managers ask other staff what they thought of the person they interviewed even if that staff member wasn’t actually part of the interview process.

It reminds me of a story that someone told me recently where she mentioned that while waiting for a flight in a foreign country’s airport, she heard two airline staff speaking in the local language that the flight she was on had been canceled even though they’d been telling passengers in English that the flight was still on. The staff didn’t realize my friend also spoke their language, heard and understood what they said, and then approached their manager and demanded (in English) that she get put onto another flight because her flight had been canceled. When the manager asked how she knew that her flight had been canceled she responded (in the local language) that the two staff members had said so, much to their embarrassment as they realized she’d overheard and understood their conversation.

When we listen to the wrong people or make the wrong assumptions, it can cost us during job searches and during our careers. The worst part is that in many cases, we never actually find out that the mistakes we make are hurting us and we continue to make them and lose out as a result.

Bad decisions make good stories.

I read this recently and it’s probably very true in many if not most cases.

In a career sense, I’m not sure I’d want to have made bad decisions that most likely cost me a job(s) in exchange for having a story or two to make people laugh for a few seconds, though.

Decision-making is a big part of your career and in each job you hold. When to leave a job is certainly one big decision that people will most likely make numerous times.

I’ve dealt with people who had resigned from a job before they’d actually signed the contract for their new job and then had their job offer with the new company rescinded…meaning they weren’t getting the new job and suddenly didn’t have the old one either.

I’ve worked with people who had a job offer for a fulltime position that they turned down because they wanted to remain working on contract…and were then still out of work 6 months later because they couldn’t find any contract work.

I also know about people who lie about stuff on their resume, get caught, and then months later I see their resume still posted on the Internet…still full of the lies that got them into trouble in the first place.

In these cases and in many others, bad decisions make good stories but usually only in the eyes of the people relating the stories and not the person starring in them.

Little mistakes that we make during job searches and interviews often aren’t so little after all.

Showing up late for an interview and not acknowledging or apologizing for being late is one thing. Just because the person interviewing you doesn’t say anything doesn’t mean they aren’t going to hold it against you. If showing up late is how you make your first impression, it’s not a good one and the fact that you don’t acknowledge it can make it worse.

Timeliness is one way that people will judge you and get a glimpse of what you’re really like. If you show up late for an interview and not say anything, they’ll immediately wonder how you’ll be if you were actually working for them.

Another thing I’ve experienced is when someone says they’re going to call you at a certain time or will send me an updated resume or provide something that I need to help them with their job search by a certain time. The deadline comes and goes and I’m still waiting for it. A day goes by, and nothing. Then I follow up with the person and they tell me they’ll get to it that day and then another day passes by and I’m still waiting.

I know people who have done that with hiring managers too where they are asked to provide something by a certain date (ie. an updated resume, a writing sample, references, etc), they don’t meet the deadline, and it just doesn’t look good.

Often, a hiring situation comes down to 2 candidates and a hiring manager might end up taking the person who doesn’t make a mistake or who doesn’t scare them away. In other words, the person who gives the hiring manager a reason to not hire them loses the job as a result.