It’s hard enough for college students to get a job. We spend countless hours obsessing over resumes, cover letters, portfolios and the best tactics to use during an interview.

So why would anyone sabotage themselves by doing something which would assure that they would never get hired?

But that is exactly what people are doing, according to a BG News article which says 57 percent of employers have caught a lie on a resume.

Lying on your resume is like stapling a sign to your head that says “Please don’t hire me.”

You just shouldn’t do it. Which is why The BG News would like to remind students (especially those who are currently job hunting) to be very careful when “beefing up” your resume.

According to the article, the most common lie caught is stretching employment dates to cover periods of unemployment.

Let’s just hope you didn’t use those employers as references. But seriously, there is no reason to hide employment gaps. If you (hopefully) have a good reason, then your cover letter should be sufficient in explaining the necessity of you “time off.”

Even if you don’t have a good reason, you should be so busy wowing potential employers with the skills you do possess they will be blind to those work force lapses.

Which brings us to the point that you should be careful when wording your resume. We know there are tons of people who put “customer conflict resolution” on their resume when their actual experience was explaining to a crazed Comcast customer why her cable guy will be there sometime between the crack of dawn and the middle of the night.

So just be careful. If you have any doubts about how far you are stretching the truth, then don’t do it. Or, better yet, call your past employer and ask if what you’re saying is an accurate description of your job. These people have been there, done that.

Just don’t lie. You will be found out, and that will be more embarrassing than not getting the job in the first place.