Lying on a Resume – Not a Good Idea

High school and College graduations start this month and that means thousands upon thousands of new job candidates looking for employment.  With a lackluster economy and increased competition the temptation to lie on a resume is very palpable.  This means individuals willing to stretch the truth, embellish previous achievements or flat out put false information on their resumes are out there.

Almost everything on a resume can be verified through a professional background screening company offering in-depth employment background checksPre-employment background screening for new hires typically include a criminal history check, license or education verification, employment verification, personal and professional reference checks and a social security number with address history trace.

A common embellishment on resumes is typically educational background.  Whether it be regarding a certain degree earned, group associations or awards received the lies go on.

From BusinessNewsWeekly.com (Apr. 21, 16) commenting on a recent Hloom.com survey of hiring managers:

The survey respondents said that lying about which college you attended is the most serious lie that job seekers can make on their résumés. Fibbing about an academic degree, foreign language fluency, college major and grade point average were also ranked among the six most serious résumé lies.

Other fabrications on a resume also include employment or work history, projects or portfolio, awards or accomplishments, promotions and College minor.

Further research also shows distinctions between “real lies” or significant lies and “white lies,” embellishments that are considered less offensive or less likely to cause considerable concern with a hiring manager.

From CheatSheet.com (Apr. 25, 16):

…the top “real” lies are mostly centered around education, work history, and accomplishments. The “white” lies, on the other hand, are harder to quantify or verify; it’s hard to make a call, or check out the paper work regarding someone’s “presentation skills,” after all.

A professional third-party background screening company has the ability to verify most items on a resume through the use of public records, phone verification, credential checks and identity verification techniques.

The temptation to lie or fabricate the truth can be very real for job candidates trying to get their dream job or the perfect job to kick start their careers.  However, being dishonest on a resume whether it be an outright lie or a stretch of the truth is not a good idea.  With modern background retrieval companies being utilized by most employers it is very difficult to get away with lies on a resume.  Not only could someone lose a great job opportunity, but they could also get branded as a dishonest person and that could hurt even more on their next attempt at gainful employment.

Many job candidates that believe telling lies on a resume won’t negatively affect them really think that their fabrications won’t ever be discovered.  These people certainly do not understand or are knowledgeable about how the employment screening industry works.  The truth is most employers utilize background screening agencies to complete background checks on new job applicants before hiring them.  These employment background checks typically include criminal background checks, education verification, previous employment verification (if applicable), personal and professional references and a social security number search with address history trace.  A combination of these types of background checks would discover the truth and almost any lie on a resume would be revealed.

Even if a job applicant does get hired because of the lies told on their resume, chances are at some point in the future the employer will find out the truth and that means immediate termination.  Then on the next job interview that individual would have to explain why they got fired from their job.  An explanation that will make it much more difficult to find another job.

No matter how you look at it being honest on a resume is a best practice.  Especially knowing that most employers utilize professional background screening companies that perform in-depth background checks using the most modern forms of record retrieval technology and verification techniques. In this day and age it is much easier to efficiently validate any job candidate’s history.  With the tools required to find the truth on nearly every aspect of a resume it is better to be safe and honest than sorry and unemployed.  Getting rejected for a job because of falsifying a resume will make it that much more difficult to find another job, as no company or organization wants to hire dishonest people.

To read more regarding why lying on a resume is a bad idea and how a thorough background check can verify the accuracy of the information put on a resume read recent CriminalBackgroundRecords.com press release:  http://www.criminalbackgroundrecords.com/news/2016-05-18-Lying-on-Resumes.html