Most People Lie On Resume, And No One Cares
NEW YORK - MAY 7: A job applicant speaks with recruiter Renee Chandler (R) during an interview May 7, 2003 at the offices of Metro Support Group in New York City. The nation's jobless rate climbed to six percent in April, rising for the third straight month, adding up to half a million lost jobs. New York's job market has especially been hit hard, with many applicants being unable to find work. (Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images)
Having an impressive resume will go a long way towards finding you that dream job, so it’s only logical to want to pad it as much as you possibly can to attract an employer. And it turns out, a lot of people are doing just that.
A new Checkster study finds:
- 78% of people say they’ve misrepresented themselves on a resume, in other words they lied.
- 60% of people have lied about mastery in skills they only had basic knowledge of.
- Other common resume fibs include:
- False reason for leaving a job (45%)
- Made-up relevant experiences (42.25%)
- Using a director title when they were only a manager (41.25%)
- Listing a degree from a prestigious university instead of their own (39.25%)
But while it may seem like a bad thing to lie on a resume, it turns out most hiring managers don’t really care. In fact…
- 66% of hiring managers say they are willing to accept misrepresentations on a resume.
- They are most lenient about inflating GPAs by more than a half a point, with 92% of hiring folks still willing to consider an applicant who has done so.
- But hiring managers say the worst thing an applicant can do is give a fake reference.
- 54% of hiring managers say they would never hire someone who faked a reference, although 43.75% say they had or would.
When I started working out of high school, I was a server for a buffet restaurant. On my resume, you would have thought that I practically owned the restaurant. The resume read as if I was a customer service manager, an accountant, and a five star Michelin chef. Surprisingly no one ever brought my ridiculousness to my attention, and now I know it’s because no one cared.
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