He keeps three versions of his résumé, tailored to what each job actually asks for. The interviewer noticed: the document in his hand was not the one that had been submitted.
Why, the interviewer asked, would he not want a prospective employer to know all of his skills? He offered the interviewer a choice — the honest answer or the HR-friendly one. The interviewer asked for the honest one.
So he gave it. The job did not require the certifications he held, so he had left them off. And the salary range on offer would not rise with the certifications attached, so the extra lines were not doing any work for either of them.
The same question came about a security clearance and a port credential. Same answer.
He expected the interview to end there. Instead the call came: a twelve-month contract. The interviewer, it turned out, had liked the answer — which is its own comment on how the rest of the process usually goes.