Résumé People Inflation Making Form One's Qualifications Bad

When applying for a job, many people are "tempted" (made to want to do something one should not do) to "pad" their résumé, making their "qualifications" (the training, experience, and education that prepares one to do something) seem more impressive than they actually are. The act of "résumé padding," also known as "résumé inflation," may take a more "benign" (not too harmful) form of "exaggerating" (making something bigger or more extreme that it really is) one's qualifications, such as stating one increased sales by 20% instead of 10%, or it may take a more "severe" (more extreme, especially in a bad way) form such as listing a "degree" (diploma; certificate earned from an educational institution) that one never actually earned.

Résumé inflation "made headlines" (was an important news story) in early 2012 when it was discovered that several of Yahoo! CEO Scott Thompson's "bios" (biographies; brief summaries of one's experience) stated that he a degree in accounting and in computer science, but "in fact" (truthfully; in reality) he had only one degree, in accounting. He lost his job as a result of the "scandal" (a negative occurrence that shocks people in a bad way and generates a lot of public interest). Thompson was criticized for lying about his qualifications, and Yahoo! was criticized for not having performed "due diligence" (appropriate research before making a major decision) when hiring a CEO.

Most "HR" (human resources; the job function related to hiring and maintaining relationships with employees) professionals have learned to expect a certain amount of résumé padding. But they also have to "guard against" (protect themselves against) it by "verifying" (determining whether something is true) basic information on applications and "checking references" (speaking with people who have worked or studied with the applicant in the past).