As an employer one of the qualities you are likely to be looking for in your job applicants is honesty, and whilst some lies on CVs might be forgivable, there are others that should certainly ring alarm bells.
Here we take a look at the top 6 CV lies you need to look out for.
Lying about education level
Candidates claiming a level of education they don’t have in the hope of getting an interview; they hope this won’t matter once it is discovered if they have had a chance to impress. If the name of a higher education institution seems unfamiliar or the details given seem odd, then have a little search online.
Exaggerating salary
It’s all too easy for a candidate to inflate the salaries of previous jobs on their CV’s in the hope of boosting the amount they might be offered for the position they are hoping to interview for. Look at the length of their experience against the salary, you could also check online to see what average salaries for the companies involved are. If you are using a recruitment agency then they should be able to confirm the full package in detail.
Date discrepancies
Check the dates on a CV carefully there may be some gaps in a person’s employment or education history, and it could be worth looking at why. It might be that a candidate has chosen to leave a period of employment of their CV, perhaps it isn’t relevant to the position they are applying for, but it could be something else, maybe even a position they were dismissed from.
Fancy job titles
In some cases, employers give fancy job titles instead of a pay rises, however, this doesn’t happen that often. If a job title seems over fancy for the position the applicant is describing they may be trying to make the position they held look more important than it was. You can check the job they held by contacting previous employers.
Fake references
If a reference for a previous employer has a mobile number, then it is worth ringing the company number and asking to speak to the person instead. All too often people will ask a friend to pose as a previous employer to give them a favourable review.
Name dropping
Of course, it is impressive if a job applicant has worked for a large name company, or with a leading public figure however most of the time it is more likely that they simply worked for the company that were involved with the big name. Ask them why they have moved away from that particular field of work and you may just unravel a few falsehoods.