Upon receiving a stack of CVs to review if you were to divide in half and add a bit more to one pile that would be the amount of resumes that could contain lies.
That’s according to a survey of more than 23,000 businesses by career matching website OneShift.
It found more than 56% had experienced staff lying on their CV.
OneShift CEO Genevieve George told
News.com.au it’s surprisingly common how often people lie on their resumes.
"People do it because they want to impress and tick all the boxes. It's about getting the interview and once they're in the door they sell themselves on personality, but they feel they have to over-impress to get past that first barrier," she told the news site.
According to the survey here are the seven most common things people lie about in their CVS:
Dates of employment: The fallacy that people should stay in a job for at least 12 months has led some to lie about how long they were employed in their previous job.
Job titles: Senior job titles should reflect senior responsibilities:
Skills and accomplishments: Probe further into the accomplishments the candidate claims to have achieved. You might find they are not what they are stacked up to be.
Salary: Most candidates hope to be paid a greater salary in their next job but exaggerating the salary you were paid in your last job to achieve this is not a good idea. Employers easily can check these things.
Education: According to OneShift lying about degrees and academic results are commonplace, often to suit the job. However, doing so can destroy trust between the candidate and the employer.
Responsibilities: Be honest with yourself, were you really a manager in your last job? “Let’s be honest, managing is managing. And if you were the lowest on the totem pole or really anything other than the manager, you didn't manage," says George.
References: Using friends and family to act as professional references is dodgy territory.
