>> Where I'm from, lying isn't good.
> 
> It's not lying. It's no more lying than leaving out the bad grades.

Technically yes. But claiming to have "extensive knowledge of AutoCAD" 
when really you just work filling paper in an office where AudoCAD is 
used with be an exaggeration to the point of lying. Similarly, claiming 
to have done a large-scale software development exercise when all you 
really did was 20 minutes' work is rather dishonest.

> Whether the scripts were small or not is irrelevant. Nobody else could 
> have done it, and it saved the company $8000. The people interviewing 
> you care about that sort of thing, not how many lines it took.

Well, maybe.

> And include it as "wrote dozens of custom utility programs to diagnose 
> and automatically correct problems, including network diagnostics 
> superior to those employed by our ISP."  ;-)

This is again untrue. The scripts don't "correct" anything, they merely 
monitor, and for a fee our ISP can probably provide us with all kinds of 
far superior software and hardware - and even personnel to run it. (It's 
amazing what companies will do for you if you pay them enough money...)

> Add everything you know. You're trying to get a job where knowing stuff 
> is important. The more you list, the more obvious it is you can learn 
> stuff.

So, what, just dump a giant laundry list of stuff?

Where do I stop? I mean, I could say I know HTML, CSS, XML, XSLT, LaTeX, 
PostScript, AmigaGuide... where do you draw the line?

>> The point I was really trying to make is that "normal people" don't 
>> spend their lunch break learning new technical skills that they don't 
>> actually need for anything "just for the hell of it". Only seriously 
>> motivated people do that. 
> 
> And seriously smart people.

I hypothesize that people become seriously smart by being seriously 
motivated. ;-)


>> Oracle consultant when our DB died... but it's not massively relevant 
>> here.
> 

> you get hired there, because that's how much you'll save them.

If I was applying for an Oracle role... sure. But I'm not.

>> The trouble is... I *do* do nothing each day! o_O
> 
> But you're not supposed to show that.

Sure. But it's hard to disguise something that's actually true.

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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