Some rules on ethics in job seeking

Is there a morally right way to do a job search?
The study of ethics, which can be very nuanced, provides some guidelines for the difficult situations we face. These principles have a familiar ring to most of us.
For example, there's the admonishment to do no harm. Sounds like the oath that physicians take, doesn't it? Likewise, the directive to treat others humanely seems to spring from the "golden rule" that is common to so many of the world's religions.
It is perhaps because so many of our ethical principles harken back to rules learned in childhood that job seekers become entangled over the issue of lying.
When we were children, our parents taught us never to lie. But as we matured we learned there are times when a lie seems justified. Here's the classic example: If, in 1944 Germany, a Gestapo officer asked where the town's Jewish families lived and you said, "I don't know" in an effort to save their lives, would your lie be justified?
Most of us would say the ethical principle of not harming others outweighs the principle of telling the truth. In this way, we acknowledge that ethical decisions can be influenced by a big-picture perspective.
In a job search, I would suggest this big picture: The employer wants to hire someone who can and will do the job. The job seeker, having understood the job's requirements, wants to communicate that he or she is that person.
True or false?
Using that framework, choose true or false for these common job search scenarios:
1. If you have been fired from a job, you are obligated to tell an interviewer.
2. You must use the correct job titles for past jobs.
3. You should answer all questions in an interview fully and honestly.
4. Your r & eacute;sum & eacute; should provide all dates of employment.
5. When an ad requests a degree, it is wrong to apply unless you have the degree.
6. When you have more qualifications than a job requires, it is wrong not to mention your extra skills.
Explanations
The correct answer to each question is neither true nor false, but "sometimes" or "it all depends." Here is my reasoning:
1. You should never lie to an employer. But there's a difference between lying and not volunteering details. If the interviewer doesn't ask if you were fired, then no, don't burst out with it.
Let's make it tougher. What if the interviewer asks, "Why did you leave your last job?" and you answer, "It was time to move on." Is that a lie? Not technically. At this point, it's up to the interviewer to ask more questions.
2. You already know this answer. You can't inflate a title to mislead an employer. But if your past job was finance officer, level 3.4, it's fine to rename it in English. Doesn't accounting supervisor make more sense?
3. When the interviewer asks why you chose to major in finance, is it really necessary to explain that there was an attractive grad student teaching all the introductory classes? Surely you can come up with a less complete answer.
4. Your r & eacute;sum & eacute; is your personal marketing tool. If including dates from 30 years ago does not help your cause, don't do it. Is this lying? No more than not including any other detail. You're not putting down your phone numbers from 30 years ago either.
5. If a degree is required by law (a licensed position such as attorney, for example), then it is a waste of everyone's time for a nondegreed person to apply. That doesn't make it ethically wrong, but it is annoying. On the other hand, if the ad requests a degree for jobs that don't require one and you can do the work, the employer may still want to hear from you. There is nothing wrong with responding.
6. Assuming that you plan to stay a reasonable length of time and do the job well, there's no reason not to apply for a job for which you are overqualified. In so doing, you would be foolish to talk about skills that won't be called for on the job. You may have noticed that these situations aren't actually about lying. They are about not saying everything, or about rephrasing something to be clearer.
Unfortunately, some job seekers feel too guilty to do this. If this describes you, remember that a pragmatic ethical code is one that will help everyone involved to make good decisions.
XAmy Lindgren, the owner of a career-consulting firm in St. Paul, Minn., can be reached at alindgrenpioneerpress.com.