Red flags, bad examples, and why dishonesty never works
Landay: I had a candidate who'd listed undergraduate work in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Berkeley and an MBA from Stanford. Both schools checked their records and told me they'd never heard of the person. When I called to ask the candidate about this, the applicant just hung up the phone. When I discover this kind of dishonesty, I drop the candidate before the client drops me and my reputation as a high-quality recruiter becomes tainted.
Ingham: Hyperbole is a red flag. I spend half my days reading resumes and LinkedIn profiles and while I applaud that rare candidate who can find a way to stand out in a crowd without sounding like an egotistical maniac, be sure that any accomplishments you have on your resume or LinkedIn profile can be defended and confirmed. Typically, when something sounds too good to be true, it is exactly that. If you weren't the top salesperson for 15 years in a row, don't say that you were. Even the smallest hint of an exaggeration of talents or experience can quickly move a candidate out of contention.
Brown: When I see resumes from candidates in the digital space that have had five or six jobs in 10 years, it reflects bad judgment and a lack of commitment.
Ingham: While the digital world has more of a tolerance for shorter stints at companies (given the dynamic nature of our industry), especially when those companies are early stage, candidates with many jobs in a few years will find a job search more challenging than those who have more tenure at fewer employers. There are exceptions to every rule, but the cost of hiring, training, and mentoring employees continues to rise -- and the cost of replacing someone sooner than planned is a painful price for our lean, streamlined companies to pay. The biggest red flag to overcome is explaining short stints at too many companies in too short a timeframe.
