During the recruitment process, recruiters may come across some truly ‘golden’ candidates who tick all the boxes as the perfect hire. But surely this would signal alarm bells for many?
For example, late last year an Australian woman who successfully landed a top government job with a $270,000 salary was caught lying on her CV, after she faked her qualifications and posed as her own referee.
And it seems more and more jobseekers are open to telling a few white lies during the interview process if it means it gets them one step closer to bagging a new job.
New research by ResumeLab that has been labeled 'Your ideal candidate is probably a liar', surveyed 1,051 respondents and asked if they lied, why they lied and if they had ever been caught. Surprisingly, only 30% of people who lied had ever got caught, meaning the majority of liars are getting away with it.
27% of jobseekers revealed that they had lied about experience; 18% had told fibs about the skills they have and 17% embellished their job duties, in contrast just two per cent said that they don’t lie about certifications.
Of the individuals who were caught, 65% were either fired or didn’t get the role, which indicates that 21% of people who lied on their CV paid the price of losing a job or being passed up on one.
When it comes to gender, it seems men have a higher tendency to lie as the research found that 58% of men are more likely to lie on their CV compared with 41% of women.
Elsewhere, 38% of young people (aged between 18 to 39) confessed to lying more often than older people (40+), with 30% claiming they had told a fib.
When asked why they lied, 37% cited that it was due to being unemployed for a long period of time. Meanwhile, 18% thought they wouldn’t get caught, a further 18% wanted a higher salary for the position, 17% said they were not qualified and 16% claimed 'other' reasons for their untruths.
Boris