Career advice from radio personalities?

As I was headed from the gym this morning I was listening to a local radio station. Every weekday morning they have what they call the Morning Mind Messer. This morning’s question was, "What is the number one thing people lie about on resume?"  The answer….Salary.

I actually found that surprising as I don’t know of anyone that actually puts their salary on their resume. That went away along with the days of putting your DoB, hobbies, pets and favorite flavor of ice cream. Perhaps it was actually regarding an employment application. So my first recommendation is to never include salary on a resume. Okay the next thing that struck me was that the radio personalities suggested lying to be a good idea. Their justification for actually padding the numbers was to try and get a better offer. No, no, no, no. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Many times employers require salary verification. How would it look getting caught in a lie. You can rest assured any thought of giving you an offer is gone.

Bottom line, any company you’d want to work for should be giving you a fair and equitable offer based on your experience and skills right? And if a company is going to low ball you and pay you below market for what you bring to the table, do you really want to go to work for them anyway? Things rarely work out if you enter into a new relationship on the wrong foot. Feeling you were low balled breeds feelings of distrust and certainly doesn't give you a warm and fuzzy feeling.

There is no competitive disadvantage to putting down your current salary. The real key is your salary expectations anyway. You can dream big numbers but your expectations need to be realistic, too.

So what do you take away from all this?  Don't take career advice from a radio personality.

Scot Dickerson, CPC
President

Capstone