Most common resume lies

November 28, 2011|Uncategorized| No comments yet

In today’s competitive economy, many job seekers will do anything to get ahead, including lie on their resume to make the information look better. Some potential employees assume that recruiters will not check their references. In most cases, they are wrong. When employers have many job candidates to choose from, they are more likely to thoroughly verify each applicant’s experience. In particular, recruiters look for the most common lies on resumes.

Many job applicants falsify their dates of employment to cover gaps in work history. They often rationalize this falsehood by stating that the job itself was real, so they do have the experience they are claiming on the resume. However, employment dates are easy to verify with a simple background check.

Another common lie that job seekers tell is to embellish their job titles or salaries. For example, some shift managers claim to be assistant managers because the title sounds more impressive. In addition, applicants sometimes believe that if they claim they had a higher salary previously, they can ask future employers for more money. This is not necessarily true when the economy is down and employers can name their price and still fill the job, however. In fact, falsifying your title or salary may backfire and potential employers may feel that you are overqualified for the position.

Embellishing skills is another common falsehood that some applicants include on their resumes. Many applicants claim fluency in a foreign language, for example. Some job applicants are caught in this lie when the interviewer tests them on their language abilities by conducting the interview in the foreign language. In addition, some job seekers claim skill sets that they do not possess, such as computer languages or software skills. These lies are usually caught on the job when the employee can’t perform their required duties.

Some job applicants will include information that is completely false, such as false college degrees or honors. Some applicants feel that they aren’t as marketable without a college degree. This may not be accurate, however, especially in fields like journalism where experience is often more important than a degree.

In the end, it does not pay to fudge information on your resume. Even if you never authorize a background check, rest assured that businesses will conduct an informal background check through internet searches and by checking your social media sites, as well as by calling former employers.