I know a lot of Redditors are actively seeking employment or will be in the near future. I work within HR at a Fortune 100 Company and would love to help you all out. AMA

Do you feel it's better to tell the outright truth, or better to embellish a little? I'm not saying outright lie, but a lot of people do.

For example: Why did you leave your last job?

Usual fluff answer: I was looking for more growth opportunities.

Actual answer: My boss blamed everything on me, worked 8 hour days while I was working 10-12. Even though I made some mistakes, they were few and far between. My manager would harp on these issues when raise-time came around.

Love this question.

Dear baby jesus, embellish, get cocky, dump all your ego onto that puppy.

Example: I had one class that spend 2 weeks on Microsoft Access, and that was my lifes experience with it. For the job i have now one of the recommended requirements was Access experience.

Did I say "minor class examples with Access" nope.

"Intermediate skill level with Microsoft Access with knowledge of query building / filtering / and query joining" - PUT SOME SWAGGER INTO IT.

EDIT: Since this is the one question getting the most friction, which is great, disagreement in discussion leads to learning, I thought i would come back to it and open up some more.

From the comments I'm reading there seems to be a rift between what should be considered lying on your resume and whether embellishing will hurt your interview or job performance.

1. Its different for different jobs. If your a software engineer and you like about having knowledge about the code you are going to be working in, yes, that's intuitive, its going to get you into trouble most likely. Dont flat lie about something you know nothing about. especially when its critical to the job at hand, once agian pretty intuitive.

2. I consider Embellishing a "Polishing" of the truth. I would not suggest going overboard on the required or core skills of the job, but when trying to fulfill the recommended sections or the job postings you should try and put any experience that is relative to fulfilling that requirement.

3. There is always a training / learning period for any new job you enter. For all required skills within my job i had at least a years experience with and I felt like a complete novice for about 3-4 months when i started. Constantly learning the systems in the context of this new job I am in.

Keep up the discussion, love the fire!

Cover letters; in the days of automated software resume readers and sorters, does a hiring manager actual read them? Does anyone? And if your resume is solid would the cover letter sway one of those people one way or the other?

This is a question i get when i tell people i work within HR. Now we use a very widely used Talent Acquisition System called Taleo (recently bought by Oracle) The very first thing that you resume goes though is a sort of "word filter." Each resume must have a certain percentage of words or copmetincies in order for the resume to pass the pre screening and meets basic requirements stages.

After that a recruiter will look at the resume and initiate a phone interview with the candidate, after that is when your resume and cover letter will actually touch the manager for the position you are applying for. Then a possible face to face interview. do well on that and you are normally good to go. Job aquired!

My advice: 1. Customize each resume for the job you are applying for (not a new one each time) but make sure you mention the skills and competencies required and desired on the job posting. That will allow your resume to bee seen and viewed by the recruiter which is actually where the majority of resumes get filtered out.

I have seen job postings with 100+ applications but only 10-20 will make it past the initial word screening because people are using a single vanilla version or their resume for 15 different jobs.

My situation is that I'm working in a call center full-time while I look for a better job. My question is, How should I phrase that in interviews so that it doesn't come off as I am just looking for a position that I will leave quickly.

Sidenote: the reason I want to leave the call center is because its completely unrelated to my degree and doesn't pay that well.

That is completely understandable, many people have a misconception that applying while having a job hurts their chances, it does not. What does is having a history of very short tenure at multiple companies. Lets say in the past 5 years you have had 6 jobs none lasting over a year. That will spark interest in the recruiter / managers mind as to why you have bounced from job to job so ofter.

I would hold no worries about your current situation and good luck on the hunt!

First off, as a college senior who is about to dive head first into the job search, thank you for doing this AMA! Now to my question - I've seen a lot of questions and answers regarding resume related stuff, but what about interviewing? Your resume is what gets your foot in the door, but the interview(s) is what actually gets you the job. So what advice can you give us as far as preparing for and executing an interview?

Interviewing is an interesting process.

Firstly, have some god damn confidence in there. You are at the interview stages because you have already demonstrated that you have the qualities / skills that the manager wants or else you would not be currently interviewing.

Just answer the questions in a conversational matter. Some of the best interviews I have been to (Being on either side of the table) has been when the interview just felt like a conversation. Its not a judging platform. As i stated above you have the skills and qualities that they want, they just want to see you in person and get some more details as to what you have done and more importantly what you enjoy to do within your line of work.

Normally for a larger company you will have 3 "Layers" of interviewing.

1. Director / VP level - They will not be concerned with any technical details at all. They look to see if you will help with achieving your Area's Team's / Departments Goals and initiatives that they have. They will also try to see if you will personality / attitude wise will fit within the current Teams composition.

2. Direct supervisor / Manager - He may get into some technical questions but at a high level ex. "So you have experience using X or Y on projects?" This person has a idea in his mind on what he envisions you doing in your position and he will ask ideas revolving around those ideas. AN EXCELLENT QUESTION TO ASK : What do you have planned / envision for the person who fills this job? Once you know this you can start to further tailor you answer to try and be that person. The manager will also try to "Feel you out" to see if your attitude / personality will mesh within the team.

3. Fellow co-workers - This will be the most technical portion of your interview. They will be mainly concerned with your previous work and the skills that you posses. Again just talk with them, they could very well be your future co-workers, answer the questions to the bets of your ability but do it as if you were explaining it to a friend you are conformable talking with.

As far as preparing for an interview, not much really to do. when i first started interview I bought 2 books on common questions and it did me very little good. What you know, you know. Answer you questions in a relaxed, conversational matter. Its painful for an interviewer to listed to someone who is very ridged and has seeming "pre-planned" answers.

ASK FUCKING QUESTIONS

Its not enjoyable to feel like you are a questioning machine and the candidate just says his piece and stairs blankly at you. For example if they ask you about project work you have done you can follow up you answer with a questions like "Do you all have any examples of projects you all are currently working on that you really enjoy?" This question accomplishes many things;

1. Makes the interview seem more conversational and makes it flow much smoother.

2. Turns the tables and allows you an insight into the current project work that the team is doing and then allows you to draw comparisons to the teams current work with maybe something you have done in the past or are current working on.

3. Shows actual initiative, you are actively engaged in this interview and are actually curious about the job and work we are doing, holy fuck, this guy is awesome.

While is not crazy important do send a follow up E-mail / letter to the manager / team member thanking them for their time and opportunity to interview for the position.

Don't dwell on the interview, once its done its done.