WASHINGTON — Despite news that the unemployment rate has dropped to its lowest level since 2009, finding a job is no easy feat these days. Some job applicants are resorting to lying or embellishing their credentials on resumes in order to secure gigs.
Sixty-nine percent of hiring managers, recruiters and security professionals reported catching a job applicant in a lie, according to HireRight’s 2010 Employment Screening Benchmarking Report.
Most of the fibs were fairly innocuous. Education and employment are the most commonly embellished credentials, making up 30 to 40 percent of resume lies, according to Rob Pickell, senior vice president of customer solutions at HireRight.
“There is often a lot of focus on criminal background checks,” Pickell says.
“Quite frankly, validating credentials — both employment and educational — is an even more valuable aspect of background checks because individuals can so easily embellish their background in a way that they think will better position them for a job.”
Typically, applicants say they worked somewhere longer than they actually did. Many people also modify titles. Suddenly an analyst becomes a manager on his resume, or a manager becomes a senior manager.
Incrementally boosting credentials or reporting a higher degree is so common that some companies have implemented policies about what is acceptable.
“You really don’t know if something is an honest mistake versus someone tried to aggressively change something,” Pickell says. “A company may say…’As long as the duration is within six months of actual work, we’re OK with that.’ Or, ‘If the title is within a general family of titles, we’re OK with that.'”
Some desperate enough for work might resort to even more blatant lies.
Nathan Smith had just moved to Los Angeles and was short on both work and money. Luckily, a friend was leaving town and had a job that needed to be filled. Smith jumped at the chance and immediately applied for an office position at a big-time production company.
The woman who processed his application noticed that Smith didn’t have any office experience, something that was required for that particular position. She encouraged Smith to re-work his resume to make it more appealing.
“She called me and said, ‘You have to spin this resume a different way. You have to make it sound like you have office experience,'” Smith says. “She kind of gave me the green light to lie.”
Smith got the job and regretted it immediately. He didn’t know how to file, answer the phones or even set up conference calls. The experience was a nightmare.
“It was the worst three weeks. I dreaded going in every day,” Smith says.
After less than a month on the job, he quit and never looked back. But he did learn a lesson and has not lied on a resume since.
“It’s just too awkward and nothing good comes from it,” he says.
Other people have had a better experience with fibbing.
Joseph Ortega-Sanchez lied about how to use a switchboard to get his foot into a newspaper job. He ended up working there for 15 years.
Ashley from California lied about her experience as a scrub tech — which requires certification — to get into an accelerated nursing school program. She was up against people with more experience and wanted an edge on her application.
“I was one of 500 applicants, and they only accepted 15,” she says. “It was more to get my foot in the door. Once I was in, you had to prove your intelligence.”
Ashley got in and has been working as a nurse for several years now. She says that despite the fib working out in her favor, she would never lie on her resume now. Getting caught would be too risky.
Pickell agrees. With information so readily available through social media and other online resources, catching a job applicant in a lie is all too easy.
“There is probably more complexity on this issue than there was in the past when everything revolved around the resume,” he says. “Everything will get flagged before long.”
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