Increase of Lying Found in Resumes
Despite an increase in background checks during the interviewing and hiring process, studies report an increase in resume fraud.
In a nationwide survey conducted by careerbuilder.com, 58% of hiring managers said that they have found a lie on a resume, and 33% of them acknowledged an increase in resume fraud since the 2008 Recession. Even though the economy is slowly recovering, the continued increase of applicants lying on their resumes could be prompted by the stiff job competition. Applicants feel the need to embellish their resumes to stand out among the crowd.
Most Common Resume Lies
In the survey it was found that applicants were more likely to lie on certain portions of their resume than others. The following are the most lies commonly found on a resume:
- Embellished skill set: 57 percent
- Embellished responsibilities: 55 percent
- Dates of employment: 42 percent
- Job title: 34 percent
- Academic degree: 33 percent
- Companies worked for: 26 percent
- Awards: 18 percent
However, lying is not the right way stand out. Even if they aren’t caught right away, many have been discovered years after the fact. Recently, two men managed to build careers based off of resume lies, one a professor at NUS and the other a successful basketball coach at Manhattan College. Their deception remained undetected until they tried to move up in their careers and applied with different universities. Even though their first employers did not run a background check to verify their resumes, their prospective employers did. All of sudden both men were out of a job offer and jobs.
That doesn’t mean that you can’t match your resume to the job description, just make sure you use accurate information. Hiring managers say that you don’t necessarily have to be a perfect fit. A good fit is better than a perfect fit based on false information.