Question of the day: Have you ever caught a candidate lying on their resume?

In follow up to today's RBC Daily:

How far would you go to land a new job in this competitive market? Would you embellish the truth? That’s what Yale football coach Tom Williams did. This local story gained national attention when the Yale coach resigned yesterday after an investigation found several inconsistencies in his resume. Chief among them were that he was a candidate for a Rhodes Scholarship, attended NYU at Stony Brook (an institution that doesn’t exist) and that he was a member of the practice squad for the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers. Obviously Yale’s due diligence process leaves something to be desired but it still doesn’t justify the misinformation in Williams’ resume. Putting this story aside, is this behavior more common than we think?

Question of the day: Have you ever caught a candidate lying on their resume?

And if so- what did you do about it?

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Sylvia Dahlby on December 23, 2011 at 12:59pm

Clearly "lying" or "embellishing" or whatever you want to call it is RAMPANT on people's resumes. After all - isn't it a sales tool for marketing oneself? It's no surprise candidates (or any sales/marketing person for that matter) might "exaggerate" to showcase their strengths or lie by omission to avoid any unpleasant truths. A perfect example of this is how candidates will "sand bag" a resume to include over-emphasis on keywords; there are many career counselors that actually advise this and instruct candidates on other methods for being "found" in the ATS or on a job board. Methinks this is one reason why background checking companies are doing so well.

Sadly, there is a severe drought of the truth in US society nowadays. We have become a land where opinion trumps fact and ideology beats common sense - just look to blogsphere or the political climate today, they set a lot of bad examples.

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Permalink Reply by Kenneth Peck on December 27, 2011 at 9:35am

Gee! I like the article. It is a good test to determine if you are a seasoned recruiter or a beginner. I cannot imagine a seasoned recruiter not having caught resume lies. Most of the time the lies are caught when they send another resume about a year later and most tracking systems will add it to their portfolio of resumes. Then it becomes almost funny, no due diligence required. It is like those stupid thief stories where a robber comes into a 7-11 with a mask a gun, but his name is printed on his sweat shirt.

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Permalink Reply by Ravi on December 27, 2011 at 9:56am

I have always viewed the CV/Resume as truly a marketing material and no more than that,

Personally i have trouble convincing recruiters at times , inspite of a candidate possessing ample skills to accomplish

a role or opportunity ...recruiters seeking to insist someone having worked in a specific designation or role ...

IT industry is an ample truth to this fascio ...

apart from the myraid acronyms and designation this industry sports ...the reality is that lines and roles often get blurred

and for an outsider or a recruiter who usually and most of the times doesn't have ninche exposure or experience specific

to the industry ...is not the right most candidate to source for a job role.

I find many a candidate putting up a cv , while hailing from the IT industry myself, I vouch i have done , pretty many a times.

I really don't know how many companies really persue the truth ...and at the crux of goliath is what is one achieving by digging into the shit ...

if you find a candidate worthy, competent and capable ...i look no further ...except for the facts or reason's concerning loyaltty and committment.

so basically as long as objectives are not blurred ...digging into truth from previous job history ...is as futile and as much a

nuance as it is inthe first place.

I would like to know ...what is it one acheving if it is nailing or crucifying a candidate is the objective, what are one achieving by pruning or penalizing.

if you are looking for a surgeon in a medical or medicine or healthcare then the dynamics are truly different ...

would recruiters be daring enough to check the success rate or mortality rates of a surgeon ...when doling out a job.

curious and interesting question though ...good