Ok, folks, we’re going to change it up some week to week: one week I’ll send my "typical" debunker; another week it will be a very short reader’s poll, and/or survey results, and commentary; and who knows into the future. Stay tuned, and you can always visit my website and find out the latest NoSpin. And let me know what you want to see.

It was in the news again this past week--people who just can’t help themselves: embellish, exaggerate, or lie about their resumes and backgrounds. I’m broadly defining "resume embellishment" (written or verbal) as any of those things. A few examples–

• The police chief who never graduated from college (even though he said he had): He kept his job. Mayor Willie Brown’s comment was, "I don’t know anyone who doesn’t lie on their resumes."
• The award-winning physicist who never quite got that post-graduate diploma from Princeton like his resume stated.
• The company President who said that he served a stint as a Marine in Viet Nam–and never set foot in SE Asia or even served in the armed forces.
• The COO who supposedly played linebacker for the Steelers--who may have played a little college ball--or maybe a little high school ball?
• The mid-level tech guy who billed himself as a former CTO of a hot dot.com on Monster.com.

Stranger than truth. Nope–all true stories. So what do YOU think about "resume embellishment." Click here: NoSpinMarketing Debunker Poll--Resume Embellishment for a 30 second, 4-question debunker reader poll, and add your comments if you wish. It’s my cool new technology feature that captures and calculates survey answers. I’ll post the results for all to see (all results are anonymous). Send the poll link to your buddies and let them vote. The more the merrier. If you have ideas for a new debunker poll, send them on.

1. Do you know anyone, personally, who has ever embellished his/her resume?

Yes

No

2. What % of people do you think embellish their resumes?

less than 10%

10%-30%

30%-50%

more than half

3. If you found out that one of your employees had embellished his/her resume would you fire that person?

Yes

No

Depends on on the severity of the "embellishment"

4. Has anyone in your company ever been fired for having embellished his/her resume?

Yes

No

Don't know

A couple weeks ago a few readers suggested that I ask questions about the IT industry. I posed this question to a couple dozen debunker readers:

"Why do so many IT departments love the status quo so much-why are they so reticent to change and make a leap forward to improve efficiency, costs, etc?"

The responses to date have been outstanding and I’m hoping that others of you will join in the conversation (on or off the record). Send them to me at IT "status quo" comments. I am still collating through the responses and promise to provide the results in the next week or two.

NoSpin Debunkers are free weekly online newsletters written by Tom Ranseen. If at anytime you would like to be removed from the NoSpin Debunker reader list, please Unsubscribe. Otherwise, enjoy, join the conversation, and please forward this debunker to as many friends/acquaintances as you think may be interested–or send me their email addresses. Thanks.

Tom Ranseen NoSpinMarketing 615.383.7157