The simple answer? Don’t do it.
- I have seen national studies that claimed about 70% of resumes have “mistruths” in them.
- Other studies state 25-50% of resumes have “embellishments” (an exaggeration but not lie.)
The most common lies:
- Length of employment gaps
- Titles
- Degrees completed
- Salary
- Reason for leaving
- Not mentioning a job from which you were fired
- Taking credit for an idea developed by the team
- When career started (age)
- Size of business or projects managed
- Rank as a sales person or total revenue you represented
- Claiming to be “Consulting” when you were billing zero hours
I could quote more studies, but the point is: Recruiters and Hiring Managers EXPECT there to be many lies in resumes and in the interviews we have with applicants so we look and listen for them. (more…)
