resume padding
Exaggerating work history
Resume padding is exaggerating or embellishing qualifications on a resume—inflating job titles, stretching dates of employment, or claiming skills and accomplishments beyond what's accurate.
The practice ranges from minor puffery to outright fabrication: He padded his resume with a degree he never finished.
Distinguished from resume fraud, which typically involves verifiable lies rather than strategic exaggeration.
- embellishmentDecorative addition or exaggeration
- exaggerationOverstating beyond reality
- creative writingOriginal literary expression
- inflatingCausing to expand
- credentialsEvidence of qualification or identity
CV · cover letter · job application · job hunting · stretching · fabrication · qualifications · white lies · experience · work history · skills · interviewing · hiring manager · hiring · LinkedIn · bullet points · accomplishments · fudging
- Impression managementself-presentation, first impression, body language, eye contact, dress code
- hiring mistakesnepotism, bait and switch, halo effect, poor communication
- status seekingname dropping, bragging, showing off, flexing, one-upmanship
- cheatingcheating, scams, cons, tricks, faking
resume paddingcandor
Unguarded truthfulness
truthfulness · integrity · honesty · full disclosure · factual accuracy
resume paddingself-deprecation
Belittling oneself deliberately
false modesty · modesty · humility · humble-bragging · imposter syndrome
resume, resumes, resumed, resuming, resumption, padding, padded