Resume Inflation: Top 5 Overstatements

The Bluster and Blarney of Today’s Job Seeker

Filling out your job history? Why settle for being a waitress when you can be a Dining Experience Liaison? While there’s nothing wrong with being a garbage collector, Waste Management Technician does have a certain ring to it. These types of exaggerations, termed “resume inflation” are on the rise, nudged by a competitive job environment and a culture that insists our resume should reflect our uberselves.

While some job candidates are experts at taking hyperbole to its outer limits, employers have an eye for resume padding even if you’re not an outright fabulist. Don’t say we didn’t warn you – here’s some of our favorite examples of bluster and blarney providing HR departments with colorful reading.

Top 5 Resume & Application Overstatements

1. Job Titles

Job titles like Genius and Sandwich Artist don’t even raise an eyebrow in today’s landscape. But some, whether Assistant Director in a department of two, or Innovation Sherpa in a technology company, just don’t pass the smell test. Hiring directors are up to their lapels with jargon. Put your best face forward, but think twice about listing your job title at a call center as Communication Executive.


2. “In Transition”

We’d all prefer to consider ourselves in transition when we don’t have a steady paycheck, but any potential employer knows that means unemployed. There’s no shame in being employment challenged. But if the story you’re sticking to is that you’re in transition, how you’re spending your time during this evolutionary stage better be compelling, and include things like training for a new career or building skills by volunteering.

3. “People Person”

This phrase had its heyday decades ago, but some applicants haven’t retired their people person status either in their resumes or introductory letters. These “people” people probably just want to emphasize their outgoing personality and willingness to plan the office Christmas party, but today’s typical people person also can wear the mantel of social maven.  Translation: they’ll spend more time on Facebook than on the monthly inventory report. If you interface well with clients, say so, and explain whether your skills are in answering the phone or negotiating a multi-million dollar deal.

4. “Results-Oriented”

Many applicants showcase their value with strong phrases like “results-oriented”. Trouble is, this can prompt the red flag brigade for application-weary employers hungry for details about your accomplishments. Phrases like this are dead weight if you don’t provide actual results to support your powerful turns of phrase, and they have a tendency to sound like you’re masquerading simple job duties as successes. According to a recent piece in Business News Daily, even the mere appearance of the phrase can land your resume in the circular file. Runner up: “was instrumental in” – you better not mean playing second flute in the high school band.

5. “Excellent”

Finally, this is your resume, not a Bill and Ted Adventure, and if your typing fingers are itching to upgrade your accomplishments as “outstanding” or your skills as demonstrating “expertise”, sit on your hands until the feeling passes. Your resume is fact-based, and opinions about your awesomeness quotient should be red-lined and left to those qualified to put the gloss on your abilities – like your references, who exist to sing your subjective praises.


Have you encountered a particularly egregious resume or job applciation euphemism, overstatement or outright misrepresentation? Let us know!

Multitasking Mixed Messages

Is Task-Juggling at Work OK? 

In the heyday of multitasking, it was common to brag about answering email, writing a report all while in a meeting about the latest sales numbers. But today, multitasking has plenty of detractors, and for good reason. We now know that focusing on a single task, not juggling two or three, decreases stress and increases productivity exponentially. However, in many jobs, including production, assembly line, administrative, even managerial jobs, employers consider multitasking an asset. And in certain positions, i.e.  Reception, Front Office, or Customer Service, constant interruption and switching gears is simply part of the job. These mixed messages can have employees asking, when it comes to workplace multitasking, exactly what’s acceptable and what spells job disaster?

Workplace Multitasking: Acceptable

• You go high-low. According to experts on cognitive function, the key to effective multitasking is pairing a low level task with a higher level task. If you are engaged in something mundane, like stuffing envelopes or highlighting weekly income totals on the annual report, feel free to have that weekly check-in meeting, or dial in to the monthly conference call without worrying that your draining brain power. 

• Your job requires it. Don’t confuse doing too much that your work suffers with putting good job skills to work. Many jobs require multitasking behaviors. In fact, employers sometimes consider it a job requirement. Taking a coffee order at the same time you’re making change isn’t inefficient. It’s good service. And, the more habitual multitasking becomes (that is, the more experience you accrue) the less cognitive dissonance will result.

• You’re chunking it out. There’s a difference between doing two things at once and alternating tasks. If your job requires you to accomplish diverse duties, but you’re doing them in blocks of time of at least 15 to 20 minutes (the longer the better) without interruption, you’re “chunking”– and your multitasking is probably in the clear. 

Workplace Multitasking: Unacceptable 

• You’re there, but you’re not there. Sometimes, managers encourage workplace multitasking – when conference calls last for hours, answering email or working on other projects is expected practice. However, it’s important to understand multitasking expectations in your workplace, even if rules are not explicit. Are earbuds customary, or do they make you look like you’ve checked out? Does compulsive phone-checking in meetings mean you’re dedicated, or that you’re more interested in your personal life?

• You're constantly task switching. According to the author of The Myth of Multitasking: How 'Doing It All' Gets Nothing Done you’re losing precious time when you task switch: it’s the refocusing that causes time spillage. If your switch-to-task ratio is out of proportion, you’re on multitasking alert. Set single daily meetings with conversational time burglars, and shut down electronics to avoid interruptions. Immerse in tasks for 15 minutes and work your way up to 40 to reset your multitasking meter.

• You’re not taking time to think. You may be good at being task-focused, but you turn to email immediately after closing that Excel sheet. Take five instead. A breather after focusing on a task isn’t just a mini-vacation for your brain, say cognitive scientists. That brain downtime allows you to make connections, come up with solutions, and be more creative on the job. And that will make you a better employee, not just a busier one.

What’s Your Multitasking Profile?

Multitasking Maven. If I’m not texting, emailing, walk-talking to a lunch meeting while on hold with tech support, call the authorities – space beings have taken over my body.

Not Now, I’m Chunking: For at least 15 minute intervals, I’m immersed. Except for the phone – hey, it could be important.

Do Not Disturb. Zen-like periods of focus are the only way I get my work done. All my calls go straight to voice mail.

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No Summer Vacation? No Surprise in Maine & NH

Area Workers Welcome Summer on the Job, Not on the Beach

Not packing up your beach gear and heading to sand and shore this summer? Don’t worry—the days of rejuvenating for a week by the pool or at a fishing camp may be on the wane. Sure, plenty of employees are putting an “x” through some of those peak summer days on the calendar, but if your summer plans include work, work and more work, don’t be discouraged. You’re one of many, living in an area of the country where summer employment is a necessity. 

In Maine and New Hampshire, taking summer jobs or seasonal temporary positions, or just keeping regular work hours status quo is what keeps finances coming in. It can also be a boon for workers taking advantage of jobs offered by area businesses where summer productivity thrives. 

Working This Summer? Join the (Expanding) Club

The Griswolds can have their theme parks and their R&R – but for growing groups of employees, if the sun is high, the work is on.  

Students. If you’ve been hitting the books all winter, you’re a prime summertime job seeker. Those putting their feet up during summer break are few in Maine and New Hampshire – vacation is, first and foremost, a chance to rake is some cash for the coming year, or for padding that resumé in anticipation of graduation. 

For some, taking a vacation just isn’t part 

of the warm weather routine:  ¼ of workers 

don’t have paid vacations as part of their jobs.

Service or Tourism Industry Workers. Many workers in Maine and New Hampshire bank on June, July and August to boost their income. Hiring season for restaurants, retail stores, parks, and inns can translate into a perfect opportunity for workers to get household finances in the black. Whether you work in another field all winter (teachers, for example) or you work temporary jobs all year, summertime is definitely not leisure time. 

Production workers. In Maine and New Hampshire, many production companies gear up for summer due to planned increases in production. Job seekers looking for seasonal work, or those who may be unemployed or looking for a job change, reap the benefits. Workers can get a foot in the door at large companies, enhance their skills and experience for future job searches, or take advantage of the Temp-to-Hire option offered by some staffing agencies by turning a seasonal gig into something full time. 

Admin & Office Work. Plenty of office workers and administrators take summer vacations, and the work they leave behind isn’t going to do itself. Enter local workers who pinch hit for those employees in administrative and office jobs across industry sectors.  Summer hires fill the gaps left by vacationing employees, employees going on maternity leave, or those who may require an unexpected absence. Businesses often have relationships with staffing companies just for this reason, and when the relationship works out, some jobs can last well past summer. 

Outdoor Workers. When the sun shines, plenty of industries in Maine and New Hampshire make hay. Hiring peaks in spring and summer for businesses that depend on weather. Construction jobs and general labor jobs heat up, as do landscaping and grounds labor jobs. 

Weigh in: Is your summer vacation actually a summer staycation?

Are You Taking a Summer Vacation?

Yes, and I’m counting the days.

No, but it’s voluntary – there’s money to be made.

Would if I could. My job doesn’t allow for paid vacations.

My job IS a vacation! Why would I need another one?

Poll Maker