I advise all of my clients to be honest in their job interviews. “You can sugar coat the truth but never lie.???

As a cautionary tale, I’ll mention a friend from business school that recently had to let go of a new employee. The employee was great, but she had lied on her job application. As a policy, my friend’s company asks applicants to disclose all the jobs they have had for in the last 5 years. She hadn’t mentioned that she had recently worked as a waitress in a restaurant because she had been fired from that job. The sad part is that this woman would have still gotten the job if she had been honest. My friend could have cared less that his potential employee had been a bad waitress. After all, the job was secretarial.

After a few weeks at my friend’s company, the employee mentioned to another employee that she had worked as a waitress at a nearby restaurant. My friend noted this was not disclosed on her job application and confronted her about it. She admitted lying and he had to let her go. He felt bad about losing a good employee, but he couldn’t keep a liar in his company.

Please be honest in your job application and interview.