5 most common resume lies
March 19, 2009 by Sam NarisiPosted in: Assessing the right candidate, Background checks, In This Week's E-Newsletter, Latest News & Views
As competition for jobs heats up, more applicants may try to obtain an unfair advantage. Here are the five most common resume lies HR needs to watch for, according to a study by HireRight:
- Changed dates of past employment – Up to 34% of job applicants fudge the dates of their previous jobs to cover gaps in their employment. The good news: This is one of the easiest fibs to catch through reference checks.
- Inflated salaries – One way some dishonest candidates attempt to bargain for better starting pay: lying about how much they’re currently making. For that reason, some companies ask candidates for a previous W-2 form or pay stub before they’re hired.
- Phony degrees – About 20% of resumes have some discrepancy regarding education and other qualifications. They range from degrees listed that candidates never completely earned to degrees purchased from so-called online “diploma mills.”
- Criminal records – About 11% of all candidate background checks turn up a criminal conviction. Also, the firm warns, many convicted criminals apply for jobs exclusively at smaller companies, since they’re the least likely to perform full background checks.
- Illicit drug use – Roughly 42% of Americans admit to using an illegal drug during their lifetimes. That’s why many experts recommend drug screening for applicants, especially where safety is a concern.
What’s the biggest or craziest resume lie you’ve ever caught?
Tags: background screening, drug test, resume lies
March 19th, 2009 at 9:12 am
I had a candidate use her maiden name on our employment application and resume. Her email address on the application had another last name on it, which caused me to take a deeper look into her background. I Googled the last name on the email, and found out our candidate (who applied for an accounting position) was charged with embezzeling over $120,000 from a prior employer! The thing was that this candidate was hired at other companies after she was charged with embezzlement because she did not use her married name, which was the name where the criminal records would have appeared.
If she didn’e use the other email, I don’t think we would have caught her as there are no records with her maiden name.
March 20th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
I discovered that an attorney we hired lied about his name. He was disbarred under one name, but the bar association admitted him when he applied using his first initial and middle name. He worked for us for several months before he was discovered.
My favorite resume story isn’t a lie. The applicant put her hobbies on her resume, which included “smoking cigrats.”
March 20th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Good catch Ryan.
March 20th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
We had a Sr. Vice President who had worked for the company for over 15 years, and he started before the company verified college degrees. The company decided to do some “digging” into his background because we were hearing rumors about his education and qualifications. After weeks of phone calls to various colleges and schools, we found out he never even received his high school diploma (he stated on his resume and job application that he had a Bachelors in Marketing). We ended up terminating him for that and other reasons.
March 23rd, 2009 at 8:31 am
The conditional job offer based on the drug screen requirement at our company has always be a source of amusement and chagrin. More than one person has asked to delay taking the screen because, as they freely admitted, “I wouldn’t pass today”.
April 3rd, 2009 at 4:40 pm
I had an employee say it was his first time and promised to never to it again. That he was pressured at a party.