Those whose professions require them to sift through dozens or hundreds of resumes a year know that everything they're seeing isn't factual. A lot that might be useful has no doubt been left off, and there's enough fudging going on to satisfy the sugar cravings of a small town in Indiana.
But how bad is it really? CareerBuilder has made the effort to find out. And the news isn't encouraging.
When the online job site asked hiring managers if they'd caught an outright lie on a resume, 58 percent said they had. And since the recession, a third of them reported, it's gotten worse.
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And yet, getting caught in a lie doesn't mean you won't get the job. Slightly less than half of respondents said they wouldn't rule out a job candidate just because they found an untruth on the resume, and 40 percent said it would depend on what the candidate had lied about.
Here's what people lied about most, according to these 2,188 respondents:
- 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)
Which industries have the best liar-spotters? Here's the ranking of top busters:
- Financial services (73 percent)
- Leisure and hospitality (71 percent)
- Information technology (63 percent)
- Health care (63 percent)
- Retail (59 percent)
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
