It’s important that you express confidence when you go to a job interview. You should be able to clearly articulate that you’re the right person for the job. But should you go so far as to fake that you have more knowledge or experience than you actually have?

I used to think that doing this was okay. I figured that I could quickly learn on the job whatever it was that I needed to know to get things done. There were definitely some benefits to this. I got several jobs that I was not qualified to do. I was able to make up for my lack of experience by being a hard worker with an aptitude for quick learning.

Then at one point I tried to fake too much. I was hired on with a document imaging service. The company believed that I had experience with document management software solutions. It sounded like something I could learn as I went along. The problem was that they needed someone who could jump right into the job and take over. My inexperience showed quickly. It’s the only job that I’ve ever been fired from. And ever since I’ve been hesitant to pretend that I have experience that I don’t really have.