LIAR, LIAR YOUR PANTS ON FIRE!

 LIAR, LIAR YOUR PANTS ON FIRE!

As the employment market shrinks and becomes more competitive, studies have found rampant lies (mini fibs)? on resumes among job seekers.

DON’T DO IT!

Screening out liars is one of the major functions of today’s Recruiters, HR, and Hiring Managers

BELOW ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE ONES

EDUCATION AND CERTIFICATES: Many companies will confirm university degrees and technical certifications in their background checks.

EMPLOYMENT DATES: Don’t try to stretch your time to cover up gaps. While excluding months isn’t a lie, tacking on additional years employment to your resume is a big lie that can be easily caught by a basic reference check.

 TITLES: Don’t embellish to give yourself fancy titles. This lie is easily caught by a reference check – companies can and will give your official title as part of the reference process.

 CRIMINAL RECORD: Criminal background checks will uncover felonies . An increasing number of companies are using outside companies to do criminal background checks, even for non-financial jobs.

SALARY: Salary inflation can be caught by a thorough reference check – often using a service specializing in salary confirmation.

PROFESSIONAL LICENSE : Companies may confirm licensing with the appropriate state agency as a part of their background checks.

Today, companies don’t even have to do extensive background checks to catch you lying on your resume. That’s why over 90% of companies search social media sites like Linkedin, Facebook and Google as a part of their hiring process. Social media inconsistencies uncover a large percentage of resume lies.

You can thank your friends for that – because on social media, you’d also have to lie to all your friends. Do you think that when you put on Facebook that you “graduated” from Harvard in 1990, that you wouldn’t have 10 of your buddies crying “BS”? Or that you suddenly got a CPA?

THE TRUTH IS MORE POWERFUL

If you are applying for jobs you are qualified for, rather than lying to try for jobs you aren’t, then the truth is more powerful than lies. I’m not just referring to the truth about you – but if you can get to the truth about what’s happening inside the company, then you can express your experience to show you’ve solved similar problems, met similar goals.

When you can get to the truth inside the company and can adapt your resume to what’s happening about the company, your resume will be much stronger than lies, and you don’t have the risk of getting caught in resume lies.