# pad (out) a CV



## totallylost202

I see that délayer is in the WR dictionary for 'to pad out' but I'm not sure if it would work in my context.

I'm talking about padding out a CV or a personal statement (for a university/college/school), this means filling it with little pieces of information to make it look more full, more interesting.

Anyone got any ideas?

Thankyou all!

MODERATOR NOTE: This thread is now merged to contain several similar threads
NOTE DE LA MODÉRATION : Nous avons fusionné plusieurs fils traitant de ce même sujet


----------



## dewsy

Hi there

How about "embellir"?


----------



## archijacq

étoffer un CV


----------



## marcolo

I think that you can say :

J'agrémente mon CV de quelques détails supplémentaires

But here, "agrémenter" is more in the sense of "enrichir" your CV with additional stuff.
You could say :

Je fignole mon CV

where you have a notion of "fill the CV" with some minor improvments.


----------



## marcolo

The post of George French makes me wonder if there is a "negative" connotation.when someone pads out a CV. In french, we may say "*enjoliver un CV*", but it has a negative connotation, because you may lie a little bit to make things more brilliant, you know. Minor modifications to improve the general impression, but the modifications are not always true 
In my opinion, "embellir un CV" would have this connotation too. It is slight modifications, it is not inventing fake diplomas or such things, it is more emphasizing your good qualities/skills, saying that you have a very good knowledge of something, whereas your knowledge is only good ...


----------



## david314

marcolo said:


> The post of George French makes me wonder if there is a "negative" connotation.when someone pads out a CV. In french, we may say "*enjoliver un CV*", but it has a negative connotation, because you may *lie* a little bit to make things more brilliant, you know. Minor modifications to improve the general impression, but the modifications are not always true  *You've got it!*
> In my opinion, "*embellir un CV*" would have this connotation too. It is slight modifications, it is not inventing fake diplomas or such things, it is more emphasizing your good qualities/skills, saying that you have a very good knowledge of something, whereas your knowledge is only good ...


 Someone deserves a piece of cheese.  

-In A.E. we omit the word 'out', *to pad* a resumé -_to embellish_


----------



## drunkle

And yes, the notion of padding a resume does have a negative connotation, and rightfully so!  

Just by-the-by, a person can also 'pad their pention' as well.  This is also considered something to be frowned upon.  Hope this helps.

drunkle


----------



## George French

Quote David 314:-
'The post of George French makes me wonder if there is a "negative" connotation.when someone pads out a CV. In french, we may say "*enjoliver un CV*", but it has a negative connotation, because you may *lie* a little bit to make things more brilliant, you know. Minor modifications to improve the general impression, but the modifications are not always true'

Unfortunately my post was "censored" and removed (I did go slightly over the top so I can accept this removal).

I beg to differ with David314 "because you may *lie* a little bit". Padding out does not imply lying, although many padding outs do lie, it just means "putting items in that look good but are irrelevant or using words that could be missinterpreted a good"

Just to pad out this post, in UK-EN pad or pad out are both used.


----------



## david314

For the record:

According to Merriam-Webster: *to pad*: to expand or increase with needless, misleading or _fraudulent _matter.


----------



## George French

"to expand or increase *especially* with *needless, misleading, or fraudulent matter* <_pad_ the sales figures> —often used with _out_<they _pad_ out their bibliographies — J. P. Kenyon>"

Noted with interest. My UK-EN (Concise Oxford) doesn't include *fradulent*.

Your reference has been followed & one learns. My *cop out* of course is the *or* before fraudulent in your quote. Any other UKies arround so that we can see if the big pond is dividing or uniting the language, *on the fraudulent point*.

If we have so many problems/questions on our own language(s?), heaven help the translators!


----------



## marcolo

About fraudulent stuff, in french we have also the expression "*gonfler son CV*" that is clearly more fraudulent than "*enjoliver son CV*". In "enjoliver/embellir", it is slight, some exaggerations, nothing is invented, whereas in "gonfler", you may make up some diplomas, experiences ...
The strongest would be "*trafiquer son CV*", where you even doubt that one line is really true in this résumé.

So, in my opinion, "pad out", even if not fraudulent (which is a strong word), seems to fit "enjoliver", which has this connotation of improving something, giving it a better look, without being illegal. I think that if someone "enjolive son CV", it is difficult to prove it and sue the person, because only small details are improved, and often subjective.


----------



## Adeline91

It is a bit late, but maybe 'étayer' son CV.


----------



## learnenglishaaa

Felice: Who cares? No matter what she says, people are gonna vote for me. 
Chloe: Never underestimate the need for the clinically ambitious to *pad their resumes*. 


Que signifie ''pad their resumes''?


----------



## SwissPete

Basic research would have given you the answer:





> _Resume padding_ means adding false or exaggerated information to your resume to enhance your credentials for a job.


----------



## learnenglishaaa

@SwissPete : Merci beaucoup pour ta réponse! On ment dans son CV alors! Et en français, on pourrait traduire ça comment?


----------



## SwissPete

Les verbes *embellir *et *enjoliver *me viennent  à l'esprit.


----------



## learnenglishaaa

Merci beaucoup SwissPete!


''Trafiquer leur CV''?


----------



## moustic

En plus des suggestions de SwissPete, je pense à "étoffer".


----------



## mehoul

étoffer n'implique pas que c'est un mensonge.


----------



## moustic

Et à vrai dire, "pad" n'implique pas non plus que c'est un mensonge. 
padding = remplissage


----------



## mehoul

donc "améliorer" et "étoffer" vont bien. En revanche "enjoliver" suppose au moins une exagération.


----------



## wildan1

To me _padding a résumé_ does indeed suggest exaggeration of one's true abilities or education. You increase the importance of your job responsibilities or length of time in a position, for example. The information is based on truth, but suggests more than really exists.

It is less than _falsifying your résumé_--claiming an academic degree, legal status or job experience one actually does not have.

_gonfler son CV_ ?


----------



## Franglais1969

It may be a BE/AE difference, wildan1, because I agree with moustic; i.e. padding means to add more information or to expand on, (although not exaggerate), existing details.


----------



## misterk

The BE/AE difference is instructive (esp. to an American). But in this case, given the American context of the source document, I'm confident that it means exactly what wildan1 has said.


----------



## ManningAnne

I agree that "padding" means adding more of something, but the expression "padding one's resumé" definitely means what SwissPete and Wildan1 have indicated.


----------



## learnenglishaaa

Mais d'après la définition donnée en anglais par Swisspete, lors de son 1er post sur ce topic, ça signifie aussi : ''mettre des informations fausses''...Soit, on exagère ce que l'on met, soit on ment sur ce qu'on met...


----------



## mehoul

la limite entre mensonge et exagération est quand-même peu épaisse... je pense que si en Français tu mets "enjoliver" ça reste assez vague et ça semble correspondre à "pad"


----------



## Nicomon

I normally would agree that "padding one's resume" means exaggerating the truth,  e.g.  someone (I've seen those) who writes that they're fluently bilingual, both spoken and written, when in fact they can hardly hold a conversation in French, let alone write it.   And that would be _enjoliver / gonfler._

However in context, which I understand as adding "being elected school President" on your resume... then  in my opinion « _étoffer son _CV » would work fine.
There's also  : _enrichir. 
_*
Edit :*  Then again, mehoul has a point.  _Enjoliver_ sounds like a happy middle.


----------



## learnenglishaaa

Merci encore à tous! ''Trafiquer'' pourrait convenir, selon vous?


----------



## Nicomon

À mon avis... non.  « Trafiquer » ne conviendrait pas dans ton contexte.


----------



## learnenglishaaa

Merci beaucoup Nicomon!


----------



## wildan1

Franglais1969 said:


> It may be a BE/AE difference, wildan1, because I agree with moustic; i.e. padding means to add more information or to expand on, (although not exaggerate), existing details.


In AE we would probably describe that as _rounding out_ or _expanding on_ one's résumé--not stretching the truth, but simply giving more detail. _Padding_ definitely suggests exaggeration in North America.


----------

