Do Candidates Lie?

Do job candidates lie? Maybe not all of them, but many do.

When I worked as a recruiter at Keith Lamb and Associates in Chicago we had a saying: All Candidates Exaggerate. The real saying was All Candidates Lie, but I always found that to be a little strong. Clearly I understand that what candidates are doing is trying to paint a very colorful picture of themselves in order to be selected for a certain position. The difficult part for an executive recruiter is to investigate what is absolute measurable truth and what is poetic license. I've always thought how refreshing it would be for a candidate to be completely candid and straight forward rather than always attempting to justify the hiccups on his or her resume.

So thanks to Steve Roesler at All Things Workplace who shared this hilarious application/resume on a recent blog post. Like Steve mentions in his post, I haven't the slightest idea of the original source, truth, or accuracy of the article below. But you have to appreciate both the honesty and humor of the applicant.

And as far as embellishing on your resume, not only can it damage your credibility, it can also cost you. When Ronald Zarrella, CEO at Bausch & Lomb, falsely claimed to have a masters degree in business administration from NYU, he lost his promised $1.1 million year-end bonus.

A recent article published on Yahoo states that in fact over 53 percent of those surveyed by the Society for Human Resource Managers lie on their resume.

In the recruiting business (just like in sales) the goal should always be to fit a round peg into a round hole. If you have to grease up the sides and force it in with a sledge hammer it may very well come back to haunt you...it can cost you time, reputation and money.