Proving you're capable
So truth is best - but as an unknown, how can you expect to be believed? Especially if your presentation of yourself in a recruiter's eyes is "too good to be true"?
By going out of your way to provide the truth - volunteering it so there's no question. In black and white, your CV says you can do things. All you need to do is prove them.
And here is where you should think beyond your qualifications to your actual work-related capabilities. Unless your career is just beginning, you're likely to have a fair amount of experience you've picked up on the job - direct involvement with issues in the workplace where things actually happen.
This makes you different too - from your colleagues around you - and from the rookie that you were when you stepped into your first assignment. Because things happen when you're working - things that even you are not aware of.
Like when did you learn how to use Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Access? Where did you get the customer-facing skills that you now use every day? And how about all those internal training sessions you've been on?
In the war for appropriate talent, this kind of "battle experience" is beginning to tell - sometimes even out-ranking credentials as formidable as an MBA. That's hardly surprising. Employers need to know that you can actually do the job - far more important than looking good on paper. Experience is relevant to the job - and your degree might not be.
Experience of course needs to be validated, in a reference from a previous employer, or by some other verifiable means. You can't necessarily prove it with your original degree or certificate - they're already history - unless they're recent or acquired as part of the job.
But you can with certified skills-based tests, even to the level of competence that you have achieved. Exactly the kind of proof that ClickAJob offers in over 500 professional and work-related assessments through its affiliate site ClickATest.
For around £30 a subject and 40 minutes of your time, you can provide immediate proof of your current work-related experience in internationally-recognised ISO 9001-2000 certificates. You already have the skills - now you have irrefutable proof of them.
