What candidates say vs. what they mean

When it comes to job interviews, recruiters often find themselves in the fantastical realm of fiction. There's something about the tension of the situation and the acute need to impress that turns people into elaborate story-tellers, full of exaggerations and inflated claims.

In fact, a whopping 81% of people lie during job interviews. Yes, those digits are the right way around...81%! For every 5 people interviewed, 4 are sitting there fibbing.

So, how can you separate the facts from the fiction? We've cut through the claims and the cliches to compile a tongue in cheek recruiter's dictionary of what candidates say in interviews versus what they actually mean...enjoy!

We originally shared this article over on our own site here: https://www.unitingambition.com/recruitment/what-candidates-say-vs-...;

Comment by Daniel Fogel on June 9, 2015 at 5:12pm: Roxanne - Funny stuff! Recruiters - what are the biggest lies you've caught a candidate saying? I had a guy tell me his dissertation was published by Newsweek. A quick Google search proved otherwise....

Comment by Roxanne Abercrombie on June 10, 2015 at 4:00am: Thanks Daniel!

True story: we once had a guy come into an interview in our offices and get rejected (awful interview, you know the sort.) The same person then submitted a second application to the same job using a fake name and a faked CV. He was again invited for interview and once again showed up at our offices. Since he hadn't managed to have a face transplant in the two weeks between interviews, he was immediately recognised and called out.

The guy point-blank refused to admit that he was the same candidate and had already interviewed for the role. Point-blank denial. I think that's definitely the biggest, most obvious and most mind-boggling lie we've ever experienced here...

Comment by Daniel Fogel on June 10, 2015 at 8:00am: Hahaha the old evil twin strategy eh?

Comment by Austin Fraser Ltd on June 11, 2015 at 5:22am: This is a great post, really made me chuckle!

-Charlotte AF www.austinfraser.com

Comment by Nicholas Meyler on August 7, 2015 at 5:18pm: I like the example of someone who claimed to have knowledge and experience with anisotropic conductive tape and flip-chip technology. When I asked him what he knew about it, he said "I'll ask my friend."

Comment by Nicholas Meyler on August 10, 2015 at 9:34pm: I met an attractive woman for cocktails once, through a dating service, and she sent me her resume within a week. Naturally, I called her up and talked to her for a while, thinking she might have interest in seeing me again, and she acted like she had completely forgotten who I was, even though I reminded her carefully about what bar we had met in, etc. It was definitely her, and I had also had a previous conversation with her father with the same last name who was a CEO, so I remembered very clearly. People can be very strange, sometimes.

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