Career & Education

I Lied On My Resume, And Now I'm Paying The Price

The job market is tough, and standing out from the competition is crucial. I thought that by making my skills and experience sound as impressive as possible, I could land my dream job. But I soon realised that stretching the truth on my resume would come back to haunt me.It all started when I applied for a marketing role at a well-known company. The competition was fierce – dozens, if not hundreds, of applicants were gunning for the same spot. The company only wanted candidates with experience, so as a fresh graduate, I didn’t match the job requirement. But as I didn’t want to be overlooked, I decided to tweak my resume a little.I added some ‘advanced skills’ like data analysis, project management, and strategy development. At the time, I convinced myself that I’d learn these skills on the job. To my surprise, I passed the interview and got the offer. Overwhelmed with joy, I accepted it without thinking twice. But reality hit hard.I was completely overwhelmed by tasks I had no idea how to handle. My ‘advanced skills’ in data analysis? I was clueless. 'Project management experience'? I couldn’t even manage my own to-do list. I spent hours trying to understand data that made no sense to me, desperately looking up information just to fake my way through. As the pressure intensified, my anxiety grew, and I began losing sleep. Soon, my manager started noticing the gap between what I had claimed and what I was actually capable of doing.After several missed deadlines and poor performance, my manager called me in for a meeting. I had no choice but to admit that I had overstated my skills. He was very disappointed – beyond my lack of ability, it was my dishonesty that concerned him the most. But instead of firing me, he gave me two options – I could resign from the company or get demoted to a lower paying role. Wracked with embarrassment, I decided to leave. It has been months since I left that company, but I am still unable to look for another job. I’m still recovering from the experience, but I’ve learned that dishonesty doesn’t pay off in the long run.This article is part of TSS Confessions, a weekly column where we delve into personal finance topics that are unscripted and genuine real accounts from people.