More than half (55%) of Canadian employers say they’ve caught a lie on a resumé, and 40% of these employers say they’ve been catching more lies after the recession.
That’s according to a new survey by CareerBuilder.ca.
Among those employers that have caught lies on resumés, the most common ones seen include inflated responsibilities (60%) and skill sets (57%), followed by previous job title (42%) and dates of employment (36%). Candidates have also lied about the companies they’ve worked for (30%), academic degrees (30%) and accolades and awards (21%).
Read: 15 memorable resumé blunders
So what are some of the less common lies?
• A 32-year-old applicant with 18 years of experience on the resumé.
• Applicant said he worked at a company for two years. He worked there for two days, got fired and was jobless for two years.
• Applicant claimed responsibility for fundraising $750,000 when only $500,000 is accounted for.
• Applicant claimed to have “attention to detail” and spelled “attention” incorrectly.
• Applicant faked an entire academic profile with supporting documents, all of which were faked.
• Applicant said he served as a prime minister during the 1990s.
• Applicant claimed to have been in the Marine Corps, despite living his whole life in Canada, where there is no Marine Corps.
• Applicant said he had been a vice-president at Microsoft in 2010. He didn’t graduate university until 2012.
• Applicant got his name wrong between the cover letter and resumé.
• Applicant claimed to have worked for the Olympic Committee.
Employers are split on whether lying on a resumé should lead to immediate dismissal, with 52% saying they don’t automatically dismiss a candidate. Forty percent of employers said it would depend on what the lie is, and 15% said they’d overlook a lie if they like the candidate enough.
Conducted this summer, the survey polled more than 400 hiring managers and HR professionals and more than 400 workers across industries and company sizes.
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