Most Common Resume Lies
Posted in Resume Writing
Preparing job resumes requires planning and with the job applicant trying to be as truthful as possible on writing its contents. But there are times when some people may resort to lying in order to improve their chances of getting hired. Most of the lies are added in order to impress employers and hiring managers. Here are some of the common ones in no particular order:
- Making up college degrees from non-existent schools.
- Claims of being a previous co-worker of the hiring manager.
- Claiming to be a member of a reputable organization.
- Making up work experiences to impress.
- Using a job resume of another person.
- Lying about references on job resumes.
A lot of people have tried to lie on their job resumes in order to catch the attention and impress employers and hiring managers. According to a certain survey on the subject, close to 40 percent of job applicants have admitted that they have exaggerated on their job responsibilities. Around close to 20 percent of the survey participants have admitted to lying on their listed skills on job resumes.
Ten percent have admitted to lying about their academic degrees on their job resumes. There were seven percent of respondents who said that they have lied about the companies that they have worked for. Around five percent in the survey have said that they have lied about their previous job titles in order to get hired.
The problem with being untruthful in job resumes is that job applicants can easily ruin their credibility. Even if they luckily find themselves getting hired for the job, more often than not, they will likely be discovered and may have to suffer through the embarrassment. But with employers and hiring managers ever getting wiser, it is now getting even more difficult for such lies to remain undiscovered for long.
Job applicants never have to resort to lying just to make their job resumes stand out from the rest. There are other ways that this can be done without being dishonest just to impress employers. The best way would be to write your resume in such as way so that it can capture the attention of hiring managers immediately. On average hiring managers spend just a minute or two browsing on job resumes. Getting the attention of hiring managers on that time frame would make job applicants have better chances of getting hired.
Another way of making job resumes stand out is by trying to be the first one in line submitting them on job openings. Job applicants can try daily searches for jobs and sign up for email alerts for job openings in some companies in a specific industry. This way, job applicants would better chances of having their job resumes noticed before such documents pile up with those of other job applicants.
