Ask Gorick: “How much can I bluff in my resume+interview?”

Welcome to Edition #8 of Ask Gorick Anything. This AMA is part of Gorick's Newsletter, where Harvard career advisor and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Gorick Ng shares what they don't teach you in school about how to succeed in your career.

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→ Read time: 4 min

ASK GORICK ANYTHING

How much can I bluff in my resume+interview?

Subscriber’s question:

“Tough and controversial question here. How much bluffing can I do on my resume and interview? Now this is not a cheeky question. Employers lie ALL the time to candidates and employees. Life is not like a Hallmark movie - an upright and honest single mom with little work experience badly needs a job. She goes to an interview, stumbles but the employer appreciates her integrity and decides to hire her for that. Life is NOT like that!”

—Anonymous

Gorick’s response:

Thanks for your question—and thanks for calling out a big, unfortunate, and frustrating double standard in the labor market.

Why this double standard?

Because there’s an unspoken rule of “leverage” that exists in the workplace (and I’d argue in life). Here’s how I explain it on page 120 of The Unspoken Rules (in the chapter, “Manage Your Workload”):

Leverage is why employers can ghost you in the job interview—but you, the job seeker, need to reply quickly if you’re serious about the job.

Leverage is also why employers won’t get in trouble by promising that you’ll be reporting to person A, only to later reassign you to person B—but you, the job seeker, can get in trouble if you claim to have worked at a company you never worked at.

I’m not condoning this behavior, by the way! I don’t make the rules—I only demystify the rules.

The good thing is that there are legitimate ways to promote yourself (whether for a job or for a promotion) without sacrificing your integrity.

Step 1: Focus on your contributions, not your job description

Imagine you’re about to be called on stage to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The announcer on stage is reading your biography.

What do they say?

“So and so discovered…” “invented...” “developed...”

…which are accomplishments.

What would they not say?

“So and so worked on a variety of experiments” or “They were responsible for writing grant proposals”

…which are job descriptions.

This is not to say that these Nobel laureates don’t do experiments or write grant proposals. They do. It’s that highlighting these basic tasks says nothing more about the other person than “they showed up to work” which is frankly something anyone can do.

So, before opening your resume, preparing for your interview, or rehearsing for your presentation or one-on-one, close your laptop, take a walk, and ask yourself 5 questions:

1. What exists now (thanks to you) that didn’t used to exist?

• E.g., Did you design a dashboard that’s now used to monitor the status of projects?

2. What did the higher-ups hand-pick you (over other people) to own or lead?

• E.g., Did the store manager pick you over everybody else to open and close the store?

3. In what ways were you more reliable or more extraordinary than others?

• E.g., Were you selected as employee of the month?

4. What’s bigger, better, faster, cheaper, safer, more efficient, more secure, more accurate, or more organized now (thanks to you)?

• E.g., Did you identify and fix a major miscalculation/bug in some model?

5. In what ways were you the only, the youngest, the least well-resourced, or working in a challenging environment?

• E.g., Did you work with a smaller budget than everyone else (or no budget at all)?

I once met a grocery store associate who was looking to transition to the corporate world. When I asked her what she did, she said, “I just stocked the shelves.” It was only after I pressed her with the above 5 questions that I learned that she did more than “just” stock shelves. She…

1. Found a more efficient way to label products in the store room

• I.e., created something that didn’t used to exist and that made processes more efficient

2. Trained other sales associates

• I.e., was hand-picked to lead others

3. Had a perfect attendance record in retail—where no-shows are the norm and not the exception

• I.e., was more reliable than others

4. Pulled the night shift while enrolled in school

• I.e., was working in a challenging environment

This individual wasn’t just the typical employee (which, let’s be honest, is a pretty low bar). They were more Competent, Committed, and Compatible (The Three C’s)—and future employers were at risk of never knowing about it and never giving her the credit she deserved.Don’t sell yourself short! You’re not bragging. You’re telling the truth. You’re simply changing which details to highlight.

Step 2: Highlight sexy verbs, sexy nouns, and sexy numbers

‍Once you’ve given yourself the credit you deserve, the next step is to put it into clear and concise language that’s understandable and impressive to a stranger while also using the language of whatever field you’re in or trying to enter.Here’s a real bullet point from someone I advised:

• Leader for non-profit community service organization

I’m left with so many questions:

1. What’s a “leader”?
2. How big is the non-profit?
3. What kind of community service?
4. What did you actually contribute?
5. How does this convince me to hire you?

Fast forward multiple rounds of self-interrogation (and many walks around the block), and this person came up with entirely new bullet points, one of which looked like this:

• Designed and launched an Eventbrite and Facebook marketing campaign that increased concert attendance by ~50%

Ah, okay. Now I’ve got a vivid mental image of what you’ve contributed—and, in turn, what you can do for me!All it took was some careful picking of some verbs, nouns, and numbers.

1. Verbs: I know what “designed” and “launched” mean, even if I don’t continue reading.

2. Nouns: I know what “Eventbrite” and “Facebook” are. I also know what a “marketing campaign” is and what “attendance” at a “concert” is.

3. Numbers: I know that 50% is a relatively big number. (And even if it isn’t, it at least gives me a sense of the “order of magnitude”—corporate speak for “size”—of your work.)

Of course, not everything will be this straightforward. In fact, you may not want to be this straightforward, especially if you’re applying for jobs in the same field as your current or prior job—and your profession loves insider jargon.

Say you’re in investing—and are looking for another investing job. Your verbs, nouns, and numbers might look more like this:

• Led (verb) investment diligence (noun) at a $4bn+ AUM (numbers) long/short equity fund (noun) with 10-person investment team (numbers)

My go-to mantra is: “Who do you want to impress… and what are they going to be impressed by?”

If you’re switching fields, you’ll need to use verbs, nouns, and numbers that make sense to an outsider. If you’re switching jobs in the same field, you’ll need to use the language of insiders.

Here’s an excerpt of a resume of another advisee who claimed to have no experience (with some details changed to preserve their anonymity):

And this is what their resume looked like after lots of self-interrogation:

What’d they do? They didn’t just touch up their bullet points. They also changed their job title from “ComOps Field Liason” (sic) to “Field Dispatcher.”

(Psst! I’d encourage you to also touch up your job title if you have an obscure official job title like “Technician II” unless you’re confident this title means something to the person reading your resume. I have no idea what “Analyst” means, but I do know what a “Marketing Analyst” is.)

And so we return to your original question: “How much bluffing can I do on my resume and interview?”

My answer is: It depends on what you mean by “bluffing.”

If by “bluffing” you mean “lying,” then I’m with you as someone who cares about integrity. Don’t.

If by “bluffing” you mean “selling the value of my work while staying factually correct,” then my answer is: Do it. And do it constantly.

This is true even in the workplace, by the way.

Here’s a card from my HOW TO SAY IT flashcard series for confident communication on how to introduce yourself in a meeting:

When most people introduce themselves, they say nothing more than “Hi, I’m John” or “Hi, I’m Jenny, and I’m an HR analyst.”

Put yourself in the shoes of a higher-up in the room who has no idea who you are.

Chances are, they’re thinking, “Okay, whatever. Just an underling.”

What a big missed opportunity!

Now, imagine if you had said, “Hi, I’m Jenny Smith and I’m an HR analyst. I’m helping launch our new early career hiring effort and am currently building out our on-campus recruiting strategy. Before joining Shopify, I worked in influencer marketing at Nike.”

You may still not remember this “Jenny Smith” a week from now, but, if you have any questions related to early career hiring, on-campus recruiting, Nike, or influencer marketing, you’ll know who to look up.

Are you “bluffing” as Jenny Smith?

Not in my mind. You’re simply volunteering more information that helps people understand what you do, what you’ve done, and why you matter.

Hope this helps!

—Gorick

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