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Justification for misleading text in the CV should not be derived from the given example of OTHERS being misleading (e.g. corporations etc). Making that argument is a logical fallacy (special pleading) in which an example is given in order to rationalize an uncorrelated point of argument, in this instance, omitting "Extension School" as being equal in merit and relevance to the argued point (companies do it, so why can't I?).
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I don't even need the justification. I return back to my original statement: a resume/CV is a marketing document, nothing more. While you can't outright
lie in terms of claiming degrees and experiences that you don't actually have, you are free to frame the degrees and experiences that you do have in any way that you wish in order to put yourself in the best possible light.
As a case in point, the WSJ recently ran the following article detailing how people are actually
omitting impressive work experience and degrees on their resumes in order to not appear to be overqualified. Nor do I think there is anything wrong with doing so. That's savvy and hard-nosed self-marketing and is therefore perfectly within bounds.
The New Rsum: Dumb and Dumber - WSJ.com Quote:
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Additionally, I think that the philosophical point here is that well educated people shouldn't have to try to "trick", "advertise" or allow the viewer of the CV to think that the degree was earned from Harvard College, which is what most people would think by default. By adding those two little words on a document FULL of words is not only appropriate, but honest. Honesty will always win out on deceit in this context.
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False. This is business. Come on, let's not be naive. Businesses mislead and withhold information all the time in order to succeed. That's how business works. The act of hiring is a business partnership, nothing more, and should be treated as such. Business partners mislead each other all the time.
As a case in point, arguably the greatest business deal in the modern history was Microsoft's deal with IBM to provide the DOS operating system for the PC. What IBM didn't know - and what Microsoft would obviously never tell them - was that Microsoft's OS offering wasn't even their own, rather, it was simply a renamed and modified version of 86-DOS that Microsoft had licensed from Seattle Computer Products. If Microsoft had foolishly revealed that information, then IBM would have simply made a direct deal with SCP, which would mean that Microsoft would not today be the largest software company in the world and Bill Gates wouldn't be a billionaire. But of course IBM didn't know, and Microsoft led IBM to believe that MS-DOS was proprietary.
Again, that's how business actually works. Don't be a fool. Businesses will never be perfectly honest with you, so you are under no obligation to do the same. For example, I know one guy who took a job with a company under the belief that the job was safe, but what the company didn't say is that the job for which he had been interviewing was in a division that had been been the subject of covert negotiations for several months for a sale to another company. That sale was indeed consummated, resulting in the elimination of thousands of jobs, including his own. That, after he had already uprooted his family and moved to a new city for his new job that quickly disappeared. But of course the company mentioned nary a word about those covert negotiations which, if he had known about them, would not have taken the job.
Again, that's how business works. Information is a strategic asset. You don't share information in a business negotiation if you don't have to. Otherwise, you run the risk of having the counterparty use your information against you. Again, if the guy knew that the division might be sold, he probably wouldn't have taken the job. But the company got what it wanted: the guy took the job, hence, providing the company with the viable option of
not selling the division, and if it did anyway, resulting in thousands of layoffs, that wasn't their problem.
So don't be naive. I wished we lived in a world where people were rewarded for complete honesty. Unfortunately, we don't live in that world, and the realm of business, in particular, is one that does not reward complete honesty. You have to be savvy about the way that you present yourself to companies. There's nothing at all wrong with hard-nosed self-marketing and framing.