Plenty of People Lie on Their Resumes; Why You Shouldn't

People lie about their work experience, skills, college degrees, age/location/name, and salary information.

Have you ever been tempted to fib on your resume? Well, you definitely shouldn’t do it, but apparently plenty of us have.

Indeed, a survey of American workers shows that 55% have lied on their resumes. The survey was conducted by StandOut CV a resume-building platform.

If you are thinking of joining the prevaricating crowd, you should keep in mind that there are plenty of claims that potential employers can check.

For example, if you falsely state that you played on your college football team, that can be easily verified. And you never know which part of your resume potential employers might want to investigate.

Only 30% of resume liars said they haven’t been busted. And if you are nabbed, there goes the job offer.

Further, lying on a resume or job application could be considered fraud. Sometimes, the police even get involved. 

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

Apart from the risk, do you really want to engage in unethical behavior? Every time you look in the mirror, you’ll know you’re a liar, liar, pants on fire.

Meanwhile, here's a statistic that likely won’t shock female readers: 60% of men admitted to lying on their resumes, compared with 51% of women.

In terms of which parts of their resumes workers are falsifying,

• 55% said work experience,
• 43% said skills,
• 41% said college degree,
• 40% said age/location/name,
• 39% said high school details,
• 34% said salary information,
• 34% said job specific software/equipment skills, and,
• 21% said employer references.

You might wonder why someone would lie about their name. It could be that they’re a minority and fear racial/ethnic discrimination.

As you can see from the last figure above, people aren’t just cheating on their presentation of qualifications; they’re also using fake references. 

A total of 17% of workers (1 out of 6) have used fake job-reference services, involving fake employers and paid actors. The cost: $145 per reference.

Job Differences, Age Differences

As for the biggest cheaters by industry, 72% of manufacturing workers say they stretched the truth on their resumes, 64% of health-care workers, 63% of arts and creative workers, 58% of business management and administration workers, and 58% of education workers.

Among age groups, youngsters are the most prone to lying on their resumes. The liar total is

• 67% for ages 18 to 25,
• 57% for 26 to 35,
• 50% for 36 to 45,
• 48% for 46 to 55,
• 53% for 56 to 65, and,
• 26% for 65-plus.

It’s interesting that the percentage goes down by age group until 56 to 65. Maybe that cohort feels more pressure to pad their qualifications against younger competitors in applying for a job.

When it comes to people 65 and older, they may not really care if they get a job, so why bother lying.

Given that a majority of workers lie on their resumes, it’s no great shock that 50% of workers surveyed said they lied in a job interview.

Remember, you don’t want to be part of this crowd. Honesty is (almost) always the best policy.