The Great Recession officially ended in 2009, but the economy has been slow to come back in many areas of the U.S.  According to a WalletHub study conducted earlier this year, of the Top 10 cities in the U.S. that have successfully recovered from the recession, 6 of them are in Texas.   But, you have to go down the list to #142 before you can find a city in Louisiana and that's Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans.

Of the 505 cities covered in the survey, Shreveport/Bossier City comes in at #296. Factors that the WalletHub survey looked at were "inflow of college-educated workers” to “share of households receiving public assistance” to “home ownership rate.”

The bottom line is jobs in the Ark-La-Tex are hard to come by.  There's a lot of competition out there.  Job seekers are looking for any edge they can get to help them land the job, and that includes embellishing their resumes.

"Embellishing" is just a nice way of saying "lying".  In a survey conducted by CareerBuilder.com, 77% of HR managers reported that they've found a lie on a resume. Among the most egregious was the person who claimed that they had worked at a federal prison.  Upon doing a background check, the HR person discovered that the applicant had actually been incarcerated at the prison during the time they said they had been employed there.

Hiring experts say trying to get away with a lie on a resume isn't worth the risk.  More and more companies are conducting background checks on potential employees and, with the rise of the internet, job and education histories are too easy too verify.  Not only can an exposed "embellishment" prevent you from the getting the job, it can also get you fired--sometimes years after you're hired.  As Monster.com reports poor job performance may prompt HR personnel to conduct a post-hire background check on your credentials.  If they discover that you've lied on your resume, it can be grounds for termination or possibly even legal action.

If you're caught lying on a resume, you've burned a bridge that can never be rebuilt.  If a future employer would like to talk to your past employer, you will certainly not get a good reference.  So, a white lie now can turn into a black cloud that follows you forever.

Lying isn't the only thing that can prevent you from getting a job.  Silly typos on a resume can put the ixnay on your job prospects.

Here are just a few of the silly errors and just plain dumb things the CareerBuilder.com survey revealed that HR personnel have seen on resumes:

  • A man whose last name was Flin was typing his resume when his computer auto-corrected "Flin" to "Flintstone".  His first name was Freddie.
  • An applicant who said that one of their strengths was attention to detail misspelled "attention".
  • Under "Hobbies" on their resume, an applicant wrote "smoking".

HRMorning.com had these examples:

  • One applicant wrote in a cover letter that their references really didn't like them and to not believe anything they said.
  • An applicant revealed their email address was 420bluntbro@...
  • When asked the reason for leaving their former employment, an applicant simply wrote "Mexicans".

All humor aside, when putting your resume together, remember that it can make you or break you when it comes to getting and keeping a job.

 

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