The six applicant lies you’re most likely to hear

HR administrators know all too well that they see their fair share of fiction when they review resumés and job applications. Job seekers understandably want to put their best foot forward; the problem comes when their tendency to inflate their qualifications morphs into out-and-out fabrication. Recruiting Trends lists the six most common job applicant lies:

• Claiming a degree not earned. Sometimes applicants fib because they’re just a few credit hours shy of a degree. Others go for the bold-faced lie, awarding themselves a degree from a school they never attended. Require applicants to list on applications any school experience they want you to consider. If they lie, you can act on their failure to be truthful regardless of the educational requirements of the job.
• Purchasing a degree. A plethora of Internet diploma mills make getting a degree as easy as making an online purchase. Some even boast of “accredited” status from a fake accrediting body (with a name suspiciously similar to that of a real accrediting body).There are also websites that will print out very convincing fake degrees and transcripts from the college or university of the user’s choice.
• Faking a job title. Applicants might give their career an artificial boost by “promoting” themselves to a supervisory position, even if they’ve never managed anyone.
• Hiding gaps in employment. Applicants might alter employment dates in an effort to hide gaps in employment. For some, it’s a relatively innocent attempt to cover up the time it took to find another job. But others could be hiding something more sinister, such as time spent in custody for a crime.
• Boosting their compensation. It’s not uncommon for applicants to exaggerate their pay to have a better negotiating position in their new job.
• Lying about criminal conduct. Applicants with criminal records often choose to withhold that information for fear that revealing it will prevent them from getting a job.

The common denominator with all of these is that they can be discovered by a thorough preemployment screening process.

—“The Six Biggest Applicant Lies,” by Lester Rosen, Kennedy Information Recruiting Trends/Leading Edge Insight and Strategies for the Recruiting Professional, Sept. 18, 2008.