Your HR Guy doesn’t like liars

February 14, 2008 · Filed Under Finding Your Job, Lead Story 

I don’t like lying so I don’t though I don’t know anyone who can claim that was true 100% of the time. Still, I don’t typically lie to job seekers because it is infuriating for them and it has the ability to burn some bridges. People, for the most part, understand that you aren’t interviewing one person. So when I say, “I interviewed another person and they are a strong candidate as well so we are going to do a second interview with them. I know it sucks for you to wait but we can’t make a decision until after that.” people typically understand. I know I certainly do.

One of the companies I interviewed with recently was less than honest with me and that was frustrating. There is no need to name names (that’s certainly not what this blog is about and would probably kill my hirability) but it reminded me about how important honesty is in this process and why so many people feel burned by job seeking.

I think about times that I’ve been tempted to hold back information to protect a person’s feelings. What would normally happen is that they would figure out what happened any way.

Of course, I don’t mean to intend this only happens on the HR side of things. Unfortunately job seekers can also be liars but HR almost always finds out (whether it is too late or not is another issue altogether).

In any case, the best way to tell your story is to tell it honestly. Less things to forget, less feeling to hurt and less BS make the job seeking process much easier.

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Comments

3 Responses to “Your HR Guy doesn’t like liars”

  1. hrwench on February 14th, 2008 1:50 pm

    Sounds like they did you a favor - you would not have wanted to start working there and then find out they are a bunch of fibbers. Keep on truckin’ Lance!

  2. Your HR Guy on February 14th, 2008 2:04 pm

    True enough.

  3. HR Wench was right | YourHRGuy.com on February 18th, 2008 11:06 pm

    [...] on my last post, I got a response from HR Wench that made [...]

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    Your HR Guy is a Human Resources Generalist practicing in the field. But don't let that fool you, this isn't a boring blog. I seek relevance and humor in a place we will spend much of our lives. Everything from workplace issues, job seeking and terrible bosses. Read more...

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