I've been recruiting since 1996. During that time, I've only had one candidate who lied on her resume about graduating from college ~ and it was a shame as we were going to make her an offer for a very nice leadership role at our company.
I guess I should rephrase...as far as I know, I've only had one situation where we were in process of making an offer and then discovered "the truth." The candidate had in fact attended the college noted on her resume. And, she was only one class away from graduating. I guess that's why she believed it wasn't a biggie to, well, you know....
"s t r e t c h the truth."What a shame. We like her so much we would have hired her without the degree because she had the equivalent experience. But...then there's that nasty little issue of "character," right? Yep, that's where the rubber meets the...uh...resume.
Anna Prior recently wrote an insightful article in the Wall Street Journal titled,
"In Job Hunting, Honesty is Still the Best Policy."As Anna asks, "What's the harm in a little white lie on your résumé, especially if it will help you finally nab that full-time position?" Yep, that's the $64 question. And, according to Anna's research, a lot of job-seekers have no problem in stretching the truth - check out these numbers:
According to the 2009 Screening Index released by ADP, a human-resources and payroll provider, 46% of employment, education or credential reference checks conducted in 2008 revealed discrepancies. That's up from 41% in 2006 .Holy smokes! That's almost half of all employment / education / and credential reference checks. So, what's happened since 2006 to cause the massive increase in discrepancies? Ummm, yeah, a lot of people lost their jobs. Bummer. I get it - I was there. It was ugly. But it's also too bad so many of them also lost their better judgment.
Word to the job-seeker: differentiate yourself .... tell the truth.
*P.S. - thanks to Victoria Fox whose LinkedIn status update pointed me to Anna's article!
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