Do All Candidates Lie?

Maybe not all of them but many do lie.

When I worked as a recruiter at Keith Lamb and Associates in Chicago we had a saying, All Candidates Exaggerate. The real saying was All Candidates Lie but I always found that to be a little strong. Clearly I understand that what candidates are doing is trying to paint a very colorful picture of themselves in order to be selected for a certain position. The difficult part for an executive recruiter is to investigate what is absolute measurable truth and what is poetic license. I've always thought how refreshing it would be for a candidate to be completely candid and straight forward rather than always attempting to justify the hiccups on his or her resume.

So thanks to Steve Roesler at All Things Workplace who shared this application / resume on a recent blog post. Like Steve mentions in his post, I haven't the slightest idea of the original source, truth, or accuracy of the article below. But you have to appreciate both the honesty and humor of the applicant.

And as far as embellishing on your resume not only can it damage your credibility, it can also cost you. When Ronald Zarrella, CEO at Bausch & Lomb, falsely claimed to have a master's degree in business administration from NYU, he lost his promised $1.1 million year-end bonus.

A recent article published on Yahoo states that in fact over 53% of those surveyed by the Society for Human Resource Managers lie on their resume.

So, have you ever lied on a resume or do you know anyone who has? What was the result?

 

 

Comments

[Ginger Johnson]

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Do you know this guy, Cory? This makes me want to buy the guy a Coke and learn more. Thanks for making me laugh. gcj

[Cory Garrison]

Ginger,

This guy has it figured out. You should buy him some sushi and a Fat Tire! Thanks for the conversation!

[SaCW]

TAL is the standard in our company...."They all Lie." It's a sad truth. Say it ain't so! From the candidate that says they are only working with you for 30 days and on day 13 you get a call from one of your strategic partners who asks if you have a job for a candidate with skills so similar to *your* candidate that you just have to ask, "Is this candidates name....?" and lo and behold guess what?

To the candidate that tells you they have no negative actions against their license and when you complete your due diligence and check, ah...there are 7 cases against the person; 3 settled for over $600k and 4 pending settlement or a court date....and they want you to find them a new position..

I would say that in my industry, physicians placement, that the most frequent lies center around their relationship with our company and staff, where they've already applied, and what states they are really willing to relocate too. All of these cause us more work and less pay.