In this cutthroat job market, you may be tempted to improve your odds by pushing your resume past the truth. (In fact, one-third of job-seekers outright lie on their resumes!) Aside from any moral and ethical conflicts, this is a bad idea because any sort of digging will get you caught. A recent CareerBuilder survey found that 56 percent of hiring managers found lies on their candidates’ resumes. Finding yourself in the “caught” category spells bad news for landing your dream job, and even worse news if you’ve already been hired.

Here are some of the most common resume lies and how to overcome the temptation to make them:

• Dates of Employment – Employment gaps are not the end of the world, and they’re more common than you might think. (School? Parenthood? Travel?) What’s worse than an employment gap is getting caught in a lie about your employment dates—and all it takes is one phone call to verify that information with a previous employer. Instead of fudging the dates, try to bridge the gap with valid volunteer or freelance experience, listing the skills you gained as a home-care provider, network marketing representative, European traveler, and so on.
• Job Titles – Again, this is a piece of information most past employers will freely verify, so your prospective employer will know straight away if you were a junior financial analyst instead of the CFO. For starters, if you weren’t a manager, don’t claim to have been. And if you performed duties outside your assigned job title and description, feel free to list those on your resume, but do not reinvent your job title to follow suit. Your relevance is more about your skills and abilities than your past job titles, anyway.
• Education – Whether a false academic degree or a degree from a degree mill, employers can and will verify your education. So be sure to list your highest certification or college degree, and if you are still in school, feel free to list the school’s name and your expected graduation date. And if you’re taking a break from school, it’s best to be honest about that too, and come prepared to discuss the reason for your time away.
• Technical Skills – To better fit a job posting, it’s tempting to say you’re expert in software, math, or other principles that you barely know at all or have never attempted to learn. A call to a previous employer may not uncover these technical deficiencies, but a few days on the job will. A more realistic approach is to list those skills as areas you would like to improve. If a job description wants you to chart in Excel, enroll in a class or teach yourself as much as you can before the job interview. That way, you can honestly tell an employer you are working to improve your skills in that area.

The bottom line on truth in resume-writing: never assume employers won’t find out about a lie or an embellishment, even if a prior employer is long defunct. And if you’re still struggling with the truth, ask yourself, would you rather get a job for who you are and what you can do, or would you rather live in the shadow of a lie that could cost you your job and your reputation?