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I’m sure at one point or another, just about anyone who has put together a resume has embellished one or more points to make ourselves look more qualified for a position or to try to stand out from the competition. For a long time I entertained the idea of claiming that I had received a General Studies degree from some small school no one’s ever heard of and hoping that a prospective employer wouldn’t actually check to make sure it was legit. And why not? I think there are a lot of jobs out there where a BS is “required” that I could do without a degree. Any new job you start is going to involve a certain amount of training or guidance where you’re taught how things work in the office and what you’re expected to do. But I digress.

I was talking to Spook yesterday afternoon and mentioned that that it would be nice if I could list accomplishments in non-real world activities as things that I had actually done. The example I used was from my time with NCAA Football 2006 this week, in which I created a HS player, did some drills, and was offered a scholarship to Iowa (some other schools, too, but I became a Jayhawk). That’s total resume material. “Yes, Mr. Interviewer, I was offered a full ride to Iowa on a football scholarship and ended up winning the Heisman trophy in my sophomore year.”

However, you wouldn’t want to use some things. For instance, I might not tell a potential employer that I’ve probably killed thousands of people all around the world both as a Navy SEAL and as a terrorist or mercenary. That might not go over as well.