CareerBuilder: Most Employers Discover Lies on Resumes

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resume lies According to a recent CareerBuilder survey, 58 percent of hiring managers said they’ve caught a lie on a resume ; one-third (33 percent) of these employers have seen an increase in resume embellishments post-recession.

About half of employers (51 percent) said that they would automatically dismiss a candidate if they caught a lie on his/her resume, while 40 percent said that it would depend on what the candidate lied about. Seven percent said they’d be willing to overlook a lie if they liked the candidate.

“Trust is very important in professional relationships, and by lying on your resume, you breach that trust from the very outset,” Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder, said. “If you want to enhance your resume, it’s better to focus on playing up tangible examples from your actual experience. Your resume doesn’t necessarily have to be the perfect fit for an organization, but it needs to be relevant and accurate.”

According to employers, the most common lies they catch on resumes relate to:

  • Embellished skill set – 57 percent
  • Embellished responsibilities – 55 percent
  • Dates of employment – 42 percent
  • Job title – 34 percent
  • Academic degree – 33 percent
  • Companies worked for – 26 percent
  • Accolades/awards – 18 percent

The survey found that employers in the following industries catch resume lies more frequently than average:

  • Financial Services – 73 percent
  • Leisure and Hospitality – 71 percent
  • Information Technology – 63 percent
  • Health Care (More than 50 employees) – 63 percent
  • Retail – 59 percent

By Joshua Bjerke