Lying on Your CV?
Kate Lorenz, Careerbuilder.co.uk editor
So, you founded your university art appreciation society, did you? And captained the local rugby team? And you've increased your salary overnight by £5,000?
Think twice before giving yourself a "promotion" on your CV: Although just 5 percent of workers admit to fibbing on their CVs, 57 percent of employers say they have caught a lie on a candidate’s application, according to a 2006 survey by CareerBuilder.com. Of those employers who caught a lie, 93 percent did not hire the candidate.
"Generally speaking, lying on your CV isn't a criminal offence," says Raymond Jeffers, chairman of the Employment Lawyers Association. "But once you begin obtaining money under false pretences because you have lied on your CV, then that is deception and fraud. It is a very unwise thing to do."
Can you get away with it?
Take Neil Taylor: he produced a bogus degree certificate to secure the £115,000 position as head of the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust in 2003. After admitting the offence of obtaining a pecuniary advantage through deception, he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment.
Research published by The Risk Advisory Group (TRAG) found that 65 percent of CVs contained false information. According to TRAG, women in their early 30s were the biggest culprits, with 77 percent of their CVs containing some kind of untruth. Even among the statistically most honest group, men in their early 20s, half of all CVs featured misleading information. Nearly seven in 10 applicants have asked a friend to act as a referee on their CV.
A white lie -- or a slip of the pen?
Job seekers mislead firms over everything from gaps in employment to fraud committed against previous employers. TRAG estimate 500,000 vacancies are currently unfilled because firms cannot find the right workers to take up the positions. Bill Waite, of TRAG, said that many of the discrepancies they uncover are simple errors of omission. "But around one in 10 will be something more serious, such as criminal conviction, fraud against previous employers or even terrorist links!"
Never underestimate an employer
A spokesperson from the London and Quadrant Housing Trust, which provides rented homes to low-income families, said checks on prospective employees reveal so many to have lied that about one in 15 provisional job offers that they make needs to be withdrawn. Marcia Roberts of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation says, "You'd be surprised to know how common it is to lie about qualifications and how stupid it is because it's easy to check. Recruiters should never accept that someone has lost their certificates. Many claim to have been to foreign universities when they don't even exist!"
Being 'creative' with the truth
Here are some of the things that people have anonymously confessed to:
"I have knocked off up to four years off my age and had to adjust dates accordingly."
"I've been cheating my CV all my life. Thanks to that I'm now a managing director for one of the departments at a very large firm in the UK."
"I am currently mid level management in the oil and gas industry. I have never been questioned about, or shown, a qualification to any employer."
"Speaking as a 50-year old accountant, a 5-year reduction of one's age appears to be my door opener."
"I have epilepsy, and find it very hard to get interviews, so I leave it out in the CV, but tell them at the interview, if it is a concern or a health risk."
"The spurious debating society is a good example - I claimed to have founded the school debating society on my application to Oxford."
"Personally I don't believe I've embellished or faked a CV. However, I certainly have 'tweaked' my CV using the most powerful words possible to describe roles or actions."
"With a first class degree in astro-physics and a career as a leading brain surgeon, why on earth would I want to lie on my CV!"
Exaggerating or lying may seem the obvious way to ensnare that dream job but beware - employers are far more rigorous these days in checking out new potential employees.
Last Updated: 24/09/2007 - 3:50 PM
