Human Resources Blog - Spark Hire
job seekers that lie on resumes

The Truth About Lying on Resumes #INFOGRAPHIC

Just last week we discussed an infographic that emphasized how important it is for a company to do a background check on their candidates before offering them a job. Now, to really drive the message home and to show employers how frequent job seekers are lying on their resumes, we bring you the “Truth About Lying on Resumes” courtesy of Visual.ly.

It’s not difficult to spot the logical reasoning behind job seekers lying on their resumes. After all, the job market isn’t in a better state than a year ago and thousands of Americans are still scraping around the job market barrel for a suitable job. “Oh, lie on my resume in order to get hired? No problem!” It sounds terrible to you, the hiring manager or employer, but 70 percent of college students said they would lie on their resume in order to get the job they wanted. That’s a huge percentage of young adults ready to lie to you about their skills and experience. Furthermore, 46 percent of resumes submitted by job seekers contain some measure of false information. That’s nearly half of the resumes you receive.

So what are these job seekers lying about? Well, 40 percent of job seekers said they inflated their salary claims. Meaning, that candidate that said they made $45,000 may actually only make $35,000. That seems harmless, but when you see that 21 percent of job seekers lie about their degree things start to get pretty serious. And although 73.5 percent of job seekers claim they have never lied on a resume, they are probably lying.

Take a look at the infographic below to see what job seekers are lying about in the hiring process. Once you grasp the reality of the job market today, be sure to check out our article for tips on how to tell if a job seeker is lying to you.

The Truth About Lying On Resumes


 

Nicole Nicholson

Nicole is the Content Editor for Spark Hire and mainly writes for and edits the work for the Spark News blog. She graduated in 2010 with a BA in Journalism from DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. She has a passion for writing, editing, and pretty much anything to do with content. In her free time she frequents the Chicago music scene and writes reviews on shows for her own personal blog. Connect with Nicole and Spark Hire on Facebook and Twitter