PS Tip 66 : …but not too honest

There is a difference between being honest, and being too honest. 

Sure, you shouldn’t lie, but that doesn’t mean you have to include information that could harm your chances of being successful. For instance, it sounds great if when applying for a sales job you can legitimately say that you generated £800k in sales revenue in the previous year. It doesn’t sound so good if you go on to say that, even so, you were still the worst performing salesperson in the company. Excluding this information is not dishonest, it’s simply good sense.

Ultimately this is going to be a judgement call, and if in doubt I’d always come down on the side of remaining honest but comfortable with what you say. Honesty, however, is not the same thing as full and unabridged disclosure – Don’t harm your chances of success for no reason.