Every week, NETSHARE hosts Ask the Coach, a phone-in career coaching session with leading career management experts. Here is an excerpt from this week’s session with Kristin Speer of Accelerated Search Consulting.
So what do you do when the competition flat out lies about their achievements?
That was one of the questions posed during this week’s Ask the Coach call. One of the callers said he had noticed that many executives he knows are embellishing their LinkedIn profiles. By playing loose with the facts about their experience and credentials, they look like terrific candidates that would garner the attention of a recruiter or a hiring manager in an online search. So how can he compete with these liars in a way that gets the same kind of attention without distorting the facts?
This particular job seeker says his specialty is closing big deals in tough markets, but he’s afraid if he posts his accomplishments it will look like “padding” and no one will believe him. Kristin Speer’s advice – you should never apologize for your experience.
You should post your achievements and find ways to back up your value. Provide news links or article clips about big deals that were part of your accomplishments. Or get others to validate your accomplishments with recommendations. If you have something to shout about, let others know.
Many times as a career coach, Kris said she has to work with clients to identify what metrics they had to prove their accomplishments. All too often those accomplishments are under-reported or not reported at all.
If you can validate your accomplishments then you will be ahead of the competition. When a recruiter or hiring manage challenges them about their achievements, they won’t be able to back up their claims, but you can. That’ll make the difference.
