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Did I exaggerate my skills?


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I started volunteering for a company a few months ago, so I added the position to my resume, making it clear that it was a volunteer position. I genuinely tried to contribute to the organization at first, asking questions, and trying to learn, until I realized that the needs of the project were beyond my capability. So I didn't contribute much - the only thing I really did was offer some suggestions for the general design of the project.

 

To my resume, I added that I learned some technical skills as a result of this project. This part is true, because I did spend time reading through books and tutorials, and learning these skills, but I didn't actually contribute any of these skills to the project. I wanted to, but the project was far too advanced for my knowledge. I was vague on my resume, thinking that I could explain it in an interview if asked.

 

I've been through many interviews now, and for some reason, I was never asked about this volunteer position. There's a company in particular that was talking about making me an offer. I've been through 3 interviews with them, and they asked about every other experience except this one. They did also test me on the skills that I have currently, and I've been able to answer those questions with ease.

 

I was worried that I might have exaggerated my skills for this volunteer position, because I truthfully had no idea how to contribute. I'm thinking of editing my resume to remove this volunteer position and then resending it to the employer who is thinking of extending an offer. But this also sounds kind of silly to me.

Edited by disneyfan90
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It's hard for me to be sure if you exaggerated your skills unreasonably....so much depends on the exact context, the skills in question etc. Typically, hiring managers will place much more weight on paid employment than volunteer work and that may be why nobody has asked you yet. It's fine to say you learned a skill, assuming that you truly learned it just by reading books and tutorials, but it's not ok to say or imply that you actually used it on a real project, since you didn't.

 

Perhaps the best way to know whether you exaggerated your skills is to ask yourself: "If someone asks questions about the volunteer stint and mastery of the claimed skills, can I answer honestly and in total comfort that my words will match the impression given by the resume?" If No, then yeah, you exaggerated.

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It's hard for me to be sure if you exaggerated your skills unreasonably....so much depends on the exact context, the skills in question etc. Typically, hiring managers will place much more weight on paid employment than volunteer work and that may be why nobody has asked you yet. It's fine to say you learned a skill, assuming that you truly learned it just by reading books and tutorials, but it's not ok to say or imply that you actually used it on a real project, since you didn't.

 

Perhaps the best way to know whether you exaggerated your skills is to ask yourself: "If someone asks questions about the volunteer stint and mastery of the claimed skills, can I answer honestly and in total comfort that my words will match the impression given by the resume?" If No, then yeah, you exaggerated.

 

I may have exaggerated very slightly then, if not unreasonably. I guess it depends on how the hiring manager interprets it--I didn't explicitly say that I used them on the project, just that I worked with the team to learn the skills. It didn't seem like an exaggeration at the time that I wrote it, but now I'm starting to question. Would it be worth it to go back to the employer and resend my resume with the experience removed just to be safe?

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I'm thinking of editing my resume to remove this volunteer position and then resending it to the employer who is thinking of extending an offer.

 

Don't do this. It will look super weird. If they haven't asked about this volunteer experience, it's probably because they don't feel it's relevant.

 

Everyone tries to make themselves sound better on their resume. If you're not outright lying about your experience or education or other important things, then don't worry about it.

 

You're probably overthinking this a lot.

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Reminds me of my Sister, she once told an interviewer that she had experience on Microsoft Project when she didn't. She was a nervous wreck the first day on the job, but she's pretty smart, she was able to figure out the program enough to do the work by the end of her first day. Sometimes you have to stretch the truth a little to get a job, but make sure you read up a little about what your getting yourself into. :)

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