Don't get caught lying on your résumé
By Suzanne Wintrob, GlobeandMail.com
June 16, 2010
On paper, his résumé was impressive: He had earned an MBA, was a past vice-president of Hudson’s Bay Co., and a holder of the prestigious Order of Toronto.
But after he was hired and complaints started rolling in about his performance at work, his employer decided to dig a little deeper into his background. And after some phone calls were made, “the school [where he claimed to have earned an MBA] had never heard of him, the Bay had never heard of him, and there is no such thing as the Order of Toronto. It was just a completely fabricated past.”
So recounts Dave Dinesen, founder, president and chief executive officer of BackCheck, a Vancouver-based firm that conducts pre-employment screening for companies, about one worker his firm was hired checked out.
Many job seekers take liberties with the truth on their résumés to look more impressive to potential employers. In the wake of the recession, and with the competition for jobs getting tougher, more of those on the hunt for employment are succumbing to the temptation of bending the truth – from embellishments to omissions to outright lies – in hopes of landing a job, experts say.
“People that are desperate will do desperate things,” Mr. Dinesen said.
From the more than three million résumés his company has scoured over the years, Mr. Dinesen estimates that one in three has raised red flags, whether for false statements, exaggerated claims or important omissions. Since the economy began its downward spiral in September, 2008, he estimates the figure has crept up to about 40 per cent.
Brad Bates, president and founder of recruitment firm Premium Staffing Solutions in Vancouver, said truth bending is especially prevalent in an unstable economy. It happens regardless of age or job level, and most often when people have been out of work for a while, he said.
“Most people aren’t doing it necessarily for evil,” Mr. Bates said. “It’s just because they really want the job.”
But employers are onto them, and are digging deeper into the declared backgrounds of applicants, experts say.
“Almost all of our clients are hypervigilant these days in terms of background checks to confirm the validity of the candidate’s claims,” said Mike Davis, recruitment consultant at Toronto-based recruitment firm Lock Search Group.
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