Managers - Are you seeing an uptick in falsified resumes?

[Kurt Smith]

This is interesting from the perspective of someone just starting out and looking to climb. I am currently working a position beyond my experience and education, and as result am well below the normal pay range for a Quality Manager. I expect that once I have 3 or 4 years in this position and some certifications behind me I will move on to a larger company that will put me in that expected pay range.

I thought it was a millennial mindset, but I have always taken it for granted that if you want to receive competitive compensation you have to job hop. Ideally you stay at a company 3 years before moving to keep from appearing flakey on your resume. Interesting to see it discussed here.

 

[Ed Panek]

I have a saying I use to guide younger folks in QA RA and life in general. You are the Product Manager for your life. You make the decisions. You reap the rewards and consequences. No one else is gonna advocate for you as much as YOU will. Do I suggest lying? no. Do I understand the motivation for not correcting assumptions? Yes absolutely. I think it's ok to provide ambiguity to a clueless interviewer if they allow it to exist. Their job is interviewing; your job is being a candidate. Youre not expected to help them do their job as they are not expected to help you do yours. Your main objective is to present yourself in a positive light wrt the job requirements. Thats it. You are not a judge or jury. Just don't lie. If the interviewer discovers later on their assumption was wrong, there's a good chance they wont say a thing for appearing sloppy on details.

Again, you represent yourself, the candidate, just like a professional agent representing Tom Brady, the NFL star. Most of what you say is 100% true. Some is what is called huffing and puffing to glamorize Tom Brady. The agent accentuates the positive and redirects the negative. Thats being an agent 101 and you should do the same. Maybe Tom Brady is a terrible quarterback and all his championships are pure luck. Maybe it was mostly Bill Bellichek? But, Tom Brady was the QB on the team that won the championship those years.

 

[Miner]

Just don't lie.

Very important. I have personally seen a number of people over multiple companies get terminated for having lied on their resume. Several were in leadership positions when they were caught and terminated.

 

[Slickpick]

I think it's ok to provide ambiguity to a clueless interviewer if they allow it to exist.

I believe this is part of the problem. Some interviewers do not ask the right questions. I typically don't see a a lot of probing in interviews either (I however like to dig a little)... If candidates think they can get away with it, they're going to try.

Years ago, I had conducted an interview along side our HR Manager and my direct manager of a prospective candidate for a quality role. My direct manager took charge but only asked basic questions such as "What do you enjoy doing after work", "can you work overtime", and "do you have experience with IATF" (candidate answered "yes" but manager didn't go further). I was not given a chance to ask any technical questions related to the role, and after the candidate left, I was directed to hire this individual. I requested a 2nd interview so I could ask the questions I needed to ask - I was met with resistance at first, but was given the opportunity...

The candidate comes back for round 2 - Keep in mind the candidate listed large amounts of experience with quality in the automotive industry (IATF internal audits, ISO 17025 labs, core tools, six sigma, root cause analysis etc.) - All of my questions were continuously met with dodges and deflection from the candidate. For example - I would ask the candidate to explain the 8D process, and they would talk about a safety issue they encountered instead. This happened with every single question - the candidate couldn't explain any of the "experience" they had on their resume.

 

[gakiss2]

I changed jobs several times and looking back I do wish I had stuck it out in a couple of places. Some were great moves, others were out of the frying pan and into the fire. It seems like my worst moves were done out of greed. Yet I do agree that most of the salary increase over the years came from taking on new jobs. In some cases I thought that perhaps an employer may try to negotiate to keep me but that never happened. And I never approached anyone asking for a salary increase. Sometimes I wonder if I should have.

I have really enjoyed most of my career.

 

[Miner]

In some cases I thought that perhaps an employer may try to negotiate to keep me but that never happened. And I never approached anyone asking for a salary increase. Sometimes I wonder if I should have.

I have never seen a situation where a company made a counter-offer to stay worked out in the long run. Either the person turned it down, accepted it but left anyway a year later, or the company was just buying time to find a replacement without a gap. There was always hard feelings involved.

Regarding the salary increase, that depends on a lot of variables. If you are below the salary range for that role, by all means ask for a raise, If you are at the bottom of the range and have a good performance review, ask for a raise. If you are in the middle or upper part of the range, asking probably won't do any good unless you can argue for a grade increase (e.g., quality engineer to senior quality engineer). In all the companies at which I have worked, there were only three ways to get an increase:

1. Annual merit increase - these are usually small and the manager is typically given a fixed pool of money that they have to divvy up amongst their team. If you get more, someone else gets less. A fair manager will give high achievers more and low performers less, but lazy managers will give everyone the same percentage.
2. Developmental increase - this is when you get a promotion and a pay increase. The amount will depend on the new pay bracket and frankly whether or not your boss tries to low ball you at the bottom of the range.
3. Market adjustment - Most larger companies will survey what other companies are paying for a similar role in the same area. If the pay range is lagging behind what most companies in the area are paying, the company will make a market adjustment. If that adjustment causes you to drop below the bottom of the range, you can ask for a raise.

 

[ScottK]

3-5 years doesn't seem bad at all. We're seeing some candidates moving every 3-6 months...

kind of depends on what they were doing. I don't count contract work as job hopping.

 

[Slickpick]

kind of depends on what they were doing. I don't count contract work as job hopping.

I would agree with that - these seem to be full time positions however. The most common answer I get as to why an employee left after such a short period is "lack of growth" - If a candidate is telling me that they are leaving a job after 3 months for "lack of growth", there's no way I'm hiring them. That tells me they expect to move up immediately / shortly after starting a new position. Now - if a candidate says they left due to lack of growth after being with a company for a few years, I could understand that.

 

[Miner]

I once interviewed with a company where the senior leader told me to "Forget any ideas you may have of a personal life outside this company." If I had found that out AFTER I had started working there, I would have been gone as fast as humanly possible.

 

[Randy]

Shoot, studying the title of this Thread I've been seeing an uptick in "Falsified Managers". Lots of empty hats walking around out there contributing in their own small way to global warming..........But that's just me and my bent way of seeing things.