Most Common Resume Lies

According to a survey, more than half of hiring managers said they’ve caught a lie on a resume

The pressure to stand out in a sea of applicants may tempt job seekers to be less than honest on their resumes, but is it worth the risk?

According to a new CareerBuilder survey, which analyzed responses from more than 2,000 hiring managers and human resource professionals across industries and company sizes, more than half of hiring managers said they’ve caught a lie on a resume.

Being caught in a resume lie could get you bumped from the potential candidates list almost immediately, the survey found.

Fifty-one percent of employers said they would automatically dismiss a candidate if they caught a lie on a resume, while 40 percent said that it would depend on what the candidate lied about. Seven percent said they would 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,” said Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder. “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.”

Here are some of the most common resume lies:

  1. Embellished skill set
  2. Embellished Responsibilities
  3. Dates of Employment
  4. Job Title
  5. Academic Degree
  6. Companies Worked For
  7. Accolades and Awards

Employers may also be taking more time to look over resumes.

Forty-two percent of employers said they spend more than two minutes reviewing each resume, a 33 percent increase since December, the survey found.

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