When it comes to resumes, and many other things, you can't look at every statement as black and white. You never want to outright lie on your resume, but you do want to paint the best picture of yourself. This sometimes means leaving out certain information or finding the right angle for your experience.
简历和很多其他事物一样,你不能把每一句描述都想象得黑白分明。你一定不想在简历上全盘乱写,但你一定想要描绘出你自己最好的形象。这有时候意味着省略掉某些东西,并寻找一个合适的角度来描述你的经历。
Don't Include Your Entire Work History
不要把你所有的工作经历都写进去
Whether you have a short or long work history, you don't necessarily want to include all of it. If you're applying for a marketing position and you've worked as an intern and an associate in separate firms, but also as a cashier at a grocery store, don't pad your resume with the irrelevant job. Doing so wastes space that you can instead use to explain the good work you did at the actually relevant jobs.
不管你的工作经历是长是短,你都没有必要把它们全都写进去。如果你申请的是一份市场类的工作,而你曾经在不同的公司做过实习生和助理,也曾经在百货店做过收银员,请不要在简历上写那些无关的工作。这么做会浪费你原本能用在描述你在真正相关的工作上取得的成绩的空间。
Conversely, you may want to leave off jobs (and other information) that make you look overqualified. You don't need an MFA to work in telesales or Vice President position to get a job as a programmer. Part of putting your best foot forward on your resume involves leaving out the stuff that makes you look wrong for the position, no matter how impressive.
相反的,你或许还需要删去会让你看起来过于超过职务要求的经历(或者其他信息)。电话销售的工作并不需要你有MFA学位,程序员的工作也不需要你曾做过学生会副主席。向你的最佳简历迈进的重要一步就在于省略掉那些让你看起来和这份职位不相匹配的东西,不管这些东西有多么厉害。
Don't Embellish Your Position, Explain It
不要过分润色,只要充分解释
You never want to lie about your position. While your work might imply a more robust job title, if a prospective employer calls your previous employer to ask about a position that doesn't exist, you'll just seem like a liar. That said, you shouldn't discount the work you did beyond the call of duty. Sean Weinberg, co-founder of resume grading site RezScore, explains what to do in these circumstances:
你一定不会想在工作经历上说谎。虽然你可能会填一个非常高级的工作职称,但只要雇主给你的前任雇主打个电话,询问到一个根本不存在的职称时,你毫无疑问会被看做一个说谎者。这就是说,你不应该对工作经历作出言过其实的描述。简历评级网站RezScore创始人希恩-威伯格解释了在这种情况下该怎么做:
Let’s say you were an intern last semester. You worked really hard and you think, “Hmm, I worked almost as hard as my manager, I’ll just say that I had his title instead.” Sometimes a hiring manager catches this fib and sometimes they don’t. If you were a hardworking intern, illustrate that with the bullet points below your title, not by lying about your position at the company.
我们假设你在上个学期做过实习生,期间你工作非常认真,于是你想:“唔,我工作得几乎和经理一样认真,那我不如就写我做过经理吧。”有时人事部经理会抓到这些小谎,有时不会。如果你曾经是一位工作勤奋的实习生,你就好好解释你职位上的要点,而不要在你的职位上说谎。
You can still call yourself by your correct title and explain only the great, relevant work you did. You don't have to include remedial tasks that made up most of your job if it doesn't apply to the job you're trying to get. Instead, you can leave out more of the irrelevant tasks and focus on the ones that make you look like an intelligent, hardworking prospect.
你可以仅仅描述你真实做过的职位,并解释在这个职位上你所做的杰出、相关的工作。你不用描述和你当前申请的工作无关的那些支持性的工作。相反,你可以忽略那些无关的任务,而关注于描述会让你显得像个聪明努力的候选人。
All of that said, if you have a great relationship with the company you've left (or plan to leave) and want to use a more impressive title, talk to your boss or manager about using one. They may allow you to use a more impressive-sounding title on your resume and play along when called as a reference if they like you. Perhaps they'll even award you that honorary title as a parting gift. If your boss or manager approves, it's not really a lie.
这一切说明,如果你和你离开的(或计划离开的)公司有着良好的关系,而你想要使用一个更夺人眼球的职称,你可以和你的老板或经理商量一下能不能使用。他们或许会允许你在简历上用一个听起来更高级的职称,并且在被要求当证明人时替你圆谎。或许他们甚至会把那个荣誉职称授予你作为离职礼物。如果你的老板和经理同意,这就算不上是一个谎言。
Temporarily Lie About Skills You Can Learn
暂时对那些你可以学的技能说点小谎
Do you know Excel? Probably not very well if you haven't touched it since 2004, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't include it on your resume. If you can spend a night learning what you need to know before you need to know it, you can claim proficiency in a skill you don't really have.
你会用Excel吗?如果你从2004年后就没接触过它的话或许你并不能用的很好,不过这并不意味着你就不能在简历上写它。如果你可以在你需要这项技能前花一晚上的时间学你需要知道的东西,你就可以声称你掌握了那些你实际并不掌握的技能。
Keep in mind this means taking a sizable risk and you shouldn't take it often. You don't want to claim to know JavaScript when you've never even learned the basics. That said, you can claim to know HTML and CSS if you've learned a little bit but not a lot. When you "lie" about a skill, you have to know you can acquire that skill quickly if needed by your employer. Don't apply for jobs that require certain primary abilities you don't have. You wouldn't want to try and get a job as a front-end developer with limited knowledge of HTML and CSS, for example. You might, however, promote that same limited knowledge to find work as a blogger (or any job where those skills help but aren't required). Although it's always better to just tell the truth, if you need to embellish your skill set you can safely, under these constraints.
不过要记住这么做意味着承担一个巨大的风险,而且你不能总这么做。如果你甚至都没学过JavaScript的基础,你一定不会想要声称你懂得JavaScript。这也就是说,如果学过一点不多的HTML和CSS基础,你就可以声称你懂。当你在一项技能上“说谎”时,你必须确保当雇主需要你这项技能时你可以迅速地把它学会。不要申请那些需要你不具备的基础技能的工作。比如说,如果你对HTML和CSS只有很有限的知识,你一定不会想要申请一个前端开发人员的工作。然而,你或许能通过同样这些很有限的知识获得一份博客撰写人的工作(或者任何一些用得上但并不是必须会用这些技能的职位)。虽然说真话总是最好的,但如果你想要修饰你的技能,在这样的限定下修饰还是很安全的。
Spin Relevant Experience When You Have None
如果你没有相关经验,就改造你现有的经验
The trick doesn't involve lying, but rather digging deep to find relevant experience you didn't really know you had. If you really want a job as a graphic designer but work as a receptionist, you can spin a lot of your experience to make it relevant. Perhaps you've created fliers, mailers, in-office posters, and so on. I worked as a customer service representative awhile back and found ways to make company videos, design posters, and even write code. If you want a different job, find ways to do the kind of work you want to do at your current job so you can claim it as experience on your resume. You still have to do the work assigned to you, but if you add a few other helpful tasks here and there your company should appreciate you for it.
这个窍门中并不包含说谎,倒不如说,是深层次地挖掘那些你并没有意识到你拥有的相关经验。如果你真的很想找一份图像设计师的工作,而你现在的工作却是接待员,你可以把你的很多经验都改造成相关经验。或许你制作过传单、信封或是办公室海报等等。我曾经做过一段时间的客户服务代表,并学会了制作公司视频、设计海报,甚至写代码。如果你想找一份不一样的工作,想办法在你现在的职位上找办法做一些和你想找的工作相关的工作,这样你就能将之作为一段经验写在你的简历上。你仍然需要完成指派给你的那些任务,但是如果你在其他地方做些有用的工作,你的公司一定会很乐意接受的。
When you can't do something at a company, do it on your own time. Nobody can stop you from designing, writing, or whatever else after you clock out. When you have no relevant experience, you can always make some yourself. That might not get you an interview all by itself, but you can also try to meet someone from the company to give yourself a better chance. A simple email asking if you can take someone out to lunch to ask them for career advice can go a long way.
如果你不能在公司里做某些事,你就在自己的业余时间里做。没有人能阻止你在下班后进行设计、写作、或者做任何事情。当你没有相关的经验时,你始终可以自己创造一些。这或许并不能给你带来面试机会,但你却可以借此认识公司里的一些人,为你创造更好的机会。简单地发邮件邀请他们和你共进午餐同时寻求职业建议能为你带来很多帮助。
Make the Best of What You've Got
把你获得的成就写得最好
In the end, you want to lie as little as possible but find ways to make what you have look as attractive as possible. That means embellishing your skill set a little, including the right jobs, and focusing on relevant experience—even if it didn't make up the majority of your work. If you just don't have a lot of work experience at all, seek out internships to get some. Just don't outright lie on your resume. That might get you an interview, but it probably won't get you a job.
最后,你还需要尽可能小地说些小谎,从而尽量让你显得更有吸引力。这就是说,小小地修饰一下你的技能,描述一些合适的经验,并关注于相关经验——即使它并不是你工作的主要部分。如果你根本就没有足够的工作经验,就去找些实习工作来积累。不要在简历上全盘瞎写。那样做或许能为你带来面试机会,但或许不能为你带来这份工作。