10 most ridiculous resume lies
October 1, 2008 by Sam NarisiPosted in: Assessing the right candidate, Background checks, In This Week's E-Newsletter, Latest News & Views, Uncategorized
Some job applicants exaggerate previous accomplishments or fudge dates to cover unemployment gaps. Others use fibs that are much less subtle.
Here are the 10 most ridiculous lies recruiters have caught, courtesy of a recent CareerBuilder survey:
- Claiming to be a member of the Kennedy family.
- Listing a degree from a fake school.
- Including a photograph — of someone else.
- Claiming to be a member of Mensa.
- Listing military experience dating back to before the candidate was born.
- Claiming (falsely) to have worked for the hiring manager before.
- Listing “CEO” as a previous job title, when the candidate was actually a lower-level, hourly employee.
- Submitting samples of work that were actually done by the interviewer.
- Falsely claiming to be Hispanic.
- Claiming to be a former pro baseball player.
How about you? Have you ever caught candidates committing bold-faced lies? Let us know by leaving a comment.
Tags: CareerBuilder, HR's funny side, resume lies
October 1st, 2008 at 11:12 am
Not sure if you saw our press release but we just did a study that supports your posting:
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/employeescreeniq-shares-elementary-facts-about/story.aspx?guid={69086DCD-A9ED-47FD-8CB7-065975AE91FA}&dist=hppr
October 6th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
On his resume, an employee listed two local institutions: a Jr. High School and High School, under the heading of “Eduction”. It was later discovered that the employee did not finish Jr. High School and never attended the High School listed.
When asked about the discrepancy, he said he put the name of that particular High School on his resume because had he finished Jr. High School, he would have, “…had the opportunity to attend…” the High School listed.
He also admitted he was aware he would likely fare better in landing a job if it was not obvious that he had dropped out of school in 7th grade.
October 16th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
How many times, and on how many different sub-headings of this website, do we have to see this list of resume lies? We get it already.
November 6th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
One out of 50 people are eligible to be in MENSA. There are millions of members; why is this considered “outrageous?” (PS I am a card carrying member)