The work market nowadays is cutthroat. Undoubtedly, jobless people know how challenging it may be to fight for the best positions. Due to the intense competition, some dishonest jobseekers have fabricated or overstated their experience to increase their chances of landing a position.
Almost half of the workers surveyed by the staffing company say they have experienced someone who lied on their resume. And employers now know that some jobseekers are exaggerating their experience or presenting non-factual CVs to get the job.
However, it is worth noting that you may not be considered for the job if the hiring team discovers that you lied on your resume. Also, it’s easier than ever for the hiring team to realize that you’re lying about your experience is enough not to do it.
Below are some ways employers can discover that your resume is not factual:
Table of Contents
One of the worst lies anyone can put on their resume is claiming they attended a school they didn’t. For example, a graduate from an unidentified college who claims to be an Oxford graduate will be exposed quickly.
Some employers might accept your claim that you attended a prestigious university. Still, others will confirm your academic credentials by contacting the university you claimed you graduated from.
Although combining words to create whatever name you like is quite simple, you must be able to live up to it. You must be able to communicate effectively in French if you claim on your resume to have taught French for many years. Employers may want you to demonstrate your skills, since they know how simple it is for applicants to exaggerate their skill set.
You might be asked a question in the language you claim to be fluent in during an interview, or you might be given a quick test. Failure on such a simple test is a sure sign that you’ve either inflated your abilities or distorted the truth. And both are likely to eliminate you from consideration for a position.
You must compose a strong cover letter to accompany your great CV. You cannot have an error-filled cover letter and assert that you have strong writing and editing abilities. When your resume and cover letter are not consistent, you are making another critical error that will make you look bad and cost you your ideal job. Such a discrepancy suggests that you may have received resume writing aid or even stolen someone else’s career history and passed it off as your own.
Being unable to recall important details about your previous experience and employers during an interview is another obvious indication that you have fabricated your former employment.
You shouldn’t anticipate receiving a job offer if a prospective employer runs a background check and finds out you lied (directly or by omission) about your employment history, criminal history, education, professional certifications, or other vital information.
Not all employers perform official background investigations. However, if you lie to one of them and they find out, it will expose you.
Most employers take lying about the employment date seriously. Never give a false account of your work history or date; all it takes is a quick phone call to your former employer to get the truth.
Additionally, the hiring manager may be suspicious if you try to conceal a gap in your career history by listing your prior roles yearly rather than monthly. Fill the hole on your CV with volunteer or consulting work rather than fabricating experience if you’re worried it would make you appear unserious.
If you’re a good liar, you might get away with exaggerating in an interview or on your CV about your abilities or previous roles. However, you won’t always be able to rely on your references to support you. Direct contact will reveal the truth about your alleged accomplishments or the scope of your job obligations.
Even if you can obtain a reference supporting your lie, the interviewer may still conduct some additional research on their own, reaching out to connections or independently contacting your former boss or coworkers to learn more about you. And keep in mind that, contrary to what some jobseekers may believe, there are no rules that limit what an ex-employer can say about you.
Even if you lie to boost your chances of landing a job, you must exercise extreme caution and restrain yourself. When a recent college graduate claims to have previously held positions as a senior accounting officer or chief technology officer at a top-tier organization, it will be extremely simple to determine that he is lying. The interviewer will likely ask you a few direct questions about your responsibilities to ensure you are honest about your position.
Inflated work titles will also come to light if the prospective employer contacts your old boss to confirm your prior employment.
Candidates for jobs may stretch the truth by using ambiguous language to describe their qualifications. Maybe they think it’s acceptable as long as they aren’t telling a flat-out lie. However, astute interviewers can identify candidates who aren’t reasonably as competent as they first appear to be.
According to surveys among Jooble HR specialists, using imprecise words like “familiar with” or “engaged in” could indicate that an applicant is trying to hide a lack of direct expertise. In other words, you can’t claim to be an expert at project management just because you occasionally organize birthdays for kids.
Before making an employment offer, 70% of businesses snoop on potential employees. You’d best hope that what HR discovers on social media or during a standard Google search corresponds to the information on your CV.
According to a study by CareerBuilder, 27 percent of employers made this decision because they learned the applicant had given misleading information about their qualifications. Suppose the boss you claimed to have worked with in a specific company departed the company many years ago. In that case, a thorough Google search might reveal you.
You may believe that your lying skills are flawless. However, minor body language indicators during the interview may reveal the lies on your resume. OfficeTeam stated that while those actions aren’t absolute indicators of dishonesty, “a lack of eye contact or persistent fidgeting may signal dishonesty.”
According to the Los Angeles Times, other unconscious cues that you might be lying during an interview include touching your nose, looking down while responding to a question, and shifting your body away from the interviewer.
It’s difficult to imagine that someone would take the chance of including false facts in a resume, given the relative simplicity of finding the truth and the unfavorable repercussions of lying to a potential employer. The adage “desperate times call for desperate measures” is one that we have all heard.
Individuals may indeed turn to riskier behavior during difficult economic circumstances. However, this gives honest, genuine applicants who aren’t lying on their resumes an unfair advantage.
The hazards outweigh the advantages for those thinking of lying to a potential employer. There are sincere approaches to handling absences from the office, unfinished degrees, and even terminations from prior employment that won’t harm your chances of landing a new position.
