PS Tip 65 : Be honest

It’s often tempting to ‘massage’ the truth a little when writing your personal statement, particularly if you’re applying for a university course or graduate job and don’t yet have a lot of experience under your belt.

Tempting as it is, though, I would not recommend that you do this – it has a nasty habit of being found out, particularly at interview. If you claim to have experience of something you can bet that you’ll be asked about it at interview, and it’s pretty difficult to answer those types of questions if you’ve exaggerated the truth. Ironically, the cases when it’s most tempting to massage the truth – or even outright lie – are also the cases when you’re most likely to be found out. If you have a relatively small amount of experience, the chances of being asked about a specific point are much higher.

So by all means sell yourself to the hilt… just don’t lie. And whilst we’re on the subject…