Here's a news flash for you: people cheat. Some people fabricate their resumes and lie in their recommendation letters because they want a certain job desperately.
And the thing is, it can be effective... at first. A manager was laid off of his job when the owner of the company discovered that he lied on his resume... after five long years of employment! Clearly, this person got the job he was seeking and seemed to be working out just fine. But when it was found out that he lied, he was terminated because that means he's not trustworthy. As you can imagine, it has proven very hard for this person to find a new job now, despite his positive work record.
You can learn a couple of lessons in this situation:
1. Never lie about anything on your resume or recommendation letter. It may work in the short term, but it will probably come back to haunt you later.
2. You need to build trust in the reviewer. Reviewers know that people cheat, and they want to make sure you're not a cheater before they accept you. You have to prove yourself to your reviewer and you have to convince him that you're worthy of trust.
Collanos Workplace Mac OS X 1.3
If your recommendation letter contains verifying data, that establishes trust. Unlike resumes, a recommendation letter is written by a third party, so reviewers tend to trust them more. If your recommendation letter is in accordance with your resume, then the person reviewing your resume will believe it too.
Space is critical for resumes and letters of recommendation, so keep yours short and concise. Just enough to allow a little overlap for cross-checking.
