When Life gives you Lemons, Make Lemonade! That's a very interesting thought, let's see why! Lemons, here, are experiences and opportunities.
We have to make sure that we have got the lemons to start with.
Without lemons, you cannot make lemonade.
Lemonade is hence, the perfect career profile or trajectory.
The problem we are going to try to resolve here is what do you do when you don't have the lemons.
Do you use a flavoring agent or fake lemons or do you not make lemonade at all? Let's see what happens when you use fake lemons i.
e.
fake experiences.
How many of you have heard about Plagiarism? These checks are a fairly common phenomenon these days.
I remember from my recent days in college how even for our dissertation projects, worth a 100 marks, there were proper plagiarism checks and believe you me, even if you are the most honest person around, you'd be scared to death while you imagine your project being scanned for the sin.
Back in college, we also used to have Reference Checks on our resumes before the placement process began.
This was because a lot of students had a tendency to forge certification and achievements.
We had to carry to the placement head, all our awards and certificates to prove the credibility of each bullet on our resumes.
These plagiarism & reference checks are fairly common even in companies during the recruitment processes.
In fact, it's where their actual utility lies.
It's to warranty your claims on the resume and during your interview that reference checks are conducted.
Your recommendations/references are matched, your past work experience is checked on and more often than not, your social presence is adjudged by the means of your social profiles like Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, etc.
In the world of social networking technology and sound verification systems, it's only foolish to attempt forgery.
Apart from this, a very common mistake that job-searching worked up candidates end up committing is copying sample formats or resumes on the web.
With so many resources online, to improve your professional profile, it's only human to err.
You might lift the content from x site on the web and then feel confident of your transformed profile but would you ever wonder what kind of audience can potentially be using the same resource as a reference or as a carbon paper? No, you wouldn't.
For any given job, at an average 118 people apply.
That's a big enough sample for such behaviour to be exhibited by more than one person.
So now think about it, can you risk it? In the light of the above mechanism to check reliability in place and to ensure that only credible individuals are recruited, you need to have a POA for the kind of resources you'd look to for reference and the way you'd make the most of them.
How to do this? 1) Avoid lying- This might lead you to losing that job that you are taking so much pains of lying for.
You must assume that the employer will verify every piece of information on that piece of paper and if you are caught lying, you can lose that job, or be fired later.
Misrepresenting is unlawful and can prove disastrous for your career.
If there are gaps and parts of your career and/or employment history that you want to hide, there are better ways around it.
Don't lie! 2)Do NOT copy- Do you have nostalgic memories around copying from your friend's notebook or test paper only to find out your answer was the correct one? How frustrating was that? The worst you can do to yourself and your career, at large, is to not believe in yourself and simply edit your name and personal details in the perfect CV format as being suggested by a website or blog on career development.
You have got to get philosophical here, no one knows you better than you yourself, don't let ready-made samples and examples take over reality, they should guide you but you shouldn't alter your own self to fit them.
Instead, you need a tailor-made profile for yourself.
Is why the final suggestion is to- 3)Do it Yourself- It's you who knows each experience on your profile in and out and no one other than you yourself can do a better job at writing your resume, cover letter, linked in profile and the like.
You have to sit down to do your own SWOT- Analysis of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities & threats and zero down to ALL the things that are key highlights of your profile and/or career.
You don't need a professional CV writer, a job-board resume writer or a career specialist to write your CV, Cover Letter or LinkedIn Profile for you.
It's all about self-management fuelled by constructive feedback and guidance.
So, our cool advice would be as it's commonly said, make sure that your Resume is making Lemonade out of Lemons.
If there are gaps in your employment, justify it and don't create stories around it.
If you didn't get a degree, focus on learning.
Associate your apparent failures with positive and constructive learning experiences and use them to your advantage.
Always remember, how a doctor made a doctor by forging expertise cannot always heal the patient, a mechanic who doesn't have what it takes to be one, will never be able to repair every machine that comes his way, an engineer who has to forge his candidature will never be able to solve all the problems.
Forgery can give you temporary success.
For instance, your liar resume might clear the first round, but would it also take you through the interview? Would it make sure that you can keep the job for long enough? Think about it! And then, take a call.
You yourself can be the most awesome self-driven Resume Improvement System.
You don't have to copy or refer to anything else.
Create your own patented resume today! Good luck!!