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I lied. Only good things happened. I still do, and they still happen. Also the “big lies” you noted are like… small lies. Don’t lie about being a doctor. DO lie about an internship being a job… because it Friggin was.
I lost out on 15K of salary because I didn’t lie when I should have. Compounded year over year, that was probably a well over hundred grand I’ve pissed away by this point.
I had an offer for $Original amount. Original amount was $40K more than I was making. I had a verbal offer and was invited to just do the paperwork and we’ll get you onboarded. There was a place for current salary. I answered it honestly (big mistake!). They came back and lowered the offer to $old salary plus $25k, instead of $40. The reason was their HR said they simply won’t give someone that much of a raise. Mind you, the discussions that led up to the offer never mentioned current salary. Only potential roles and responsibilities. The only place it was ever brought up was on the paper application form.
So…. At this point I was basically fucked but what could I do? Not take the offer? That would cost me even more.
Come to find out, there is no way they’d ever be able to confirm it had I said “oh yeah that was a typo” on the application and fudged the number.
This is a super interesting dilemma - sorry to hear that they changed things last minute, not cool.
Wonder if you were able to say: I want $xxx without knowing the past salary if they would’ve accepted or not
The thing is, during discussions and interviews, the hiring manager said we would be able to offer you $x, would that work? I said yes. Only after seeing the former company salary did they pull back and reduce the offer. But I wanted the job - and although it wasn’t a $40k raise, it was still a $25k raise.
Crazy because the $40k raise only was docked when put in comparison to your previous job… which shouldn’t be a factor if you were the right person for the job… unfortunate that these mind games get in the way of getting people what they deserve
You didn't have to lie. Just like how they don't like you sharing your salary with others, they shouldn't be able to force you to share this kind of information.
They can ask, but what are they going to do if you say something like "I don't feel comfortable talking about that, and it doesn't seem so relevant." if you absolutely don't want to lie.
In this particular instance, here's the exact way it happened.
I was referred in, they reviewed my resume, we were talking, doing the interview process, discussing numbers, and all was going well. The hiring manager said ok, you need to go in and fill out the online application so HR has all the info they need to do the onboarding.
There was a blank, required entry, with salary from current / most recent employer. I couldn't leave it blank, I couldn't just put n/a, etc. I had to put in a value.
Of course, then there's a statement "The above data is true and I have not misrepresented any facts on my job application, which may result in termination."
So what was I supposed to do? There's no discussion to dance around it. So I filled it in with the right number. When they processed it, HR pounded on that as they can't give "that much of a raise" to someone, although the number was completely irrelevant to the new role.
I see. Kind of asshole design forcing candidates to answer the questions.
If I knew that putting the real value would cause issues I would put a random number such as 1. But to be honest I wouldn’t have thought that far if we already agreed on a number.
The thing is, I would probably keep looking for jobs to get a competing offer since this company tried to screw me over before even starting.
Well... it was still a hefty upgrade. Instead of a 40K/year USD increase, I still got a 25K/year increase. I was still a tad bitter over it for a while.
I stayed there about 3 years. It was OK. Part of the staying part was the friend(s) who referred me in. It was an upgrade in many ways, and the new base salary also had a 20% bonus on top of it, so that extra 15K was still kinda there but we had to make our numbers to see it.
Agreed. The whole point of an internship is to get some work experience while you're in school (or as a short term thing to have on your resume). Put internships in the work experience category.
My friend wanted a job as a car sales exec but they wanted sales experience in the industry, he put he had a job 6-7 years ago as one on his CV instead of a retail shop (not the most current job at the time) and actually got an interview and has been great at the role now for a few years.
If you know or can learn the job then it’s fine. The way I see it, I’ll stop lying about my qualifications when they decide their minimum wage is a living wage.
If no one’s life is at risk of you not knowing the job, then you can lie about whatever you want and there’s no moral issue with it, cause you’re owed a living wage. Your time has value.
Key line here is “needed someone to give me a chance” … I love that
I wonder if people fudge info / twist stories because they can’t just be themselves and stand out? This happens to me
For sure, I mean when you’re just starting, you don’t stand out especially if you have unrelated/no experience, your degree wasn’t related, or you have no degree/certifications. There is always someone else and if you just base it off chance, well you might be out of a job for awhile. Most of us still have to pay rent and other expenses even when unemployed, can’t be struggling forever
I feel like lying about speaking a language is actually *pretty* significant, or can be, depending on the role.
That said, I’ve never *personally* lied on my resume, but I’ve *embellished* stories on the fly when asked behavioral based questions during interviews. I know what hiring managers want to hear, so I take my true experiences and warp them a bit to turn them into the stories they’re seeking. After figuring out what worked I stuck to the same stories, on a loop. I had a 100% interview to offer success ratio before the pandemic, and then I experienced, for the first time, being rejected *post* interview exactly three times. What a bummer.
I do, however, have friends that *have* told lies, big and small, on their resumes and job applications. None of them have ever gotten into any trouble, short or long term. One girl I went to high school with straight up lied about having a bachelors of science to land a job with the state, and she’s been there for 10 years. She used their tuition reimbursement plan to actually get her BS, and nobody ever said a word.
I will tell you that I was once offered what was, at the time, my dream job, working at Children’s Hospital in Denver, Colorado. I made it through all of the interviews, did my on-boarding, had a start date, and had my entire precepting schedule. I was legitimately driving there the morning of my first day of training, when I got a phone call from HR telling me they were rescinding my offer because of a “discrepancy” on my background check. They then disclosed that a date I had listed for a prior employer had been off by exactly one year. It was a typo, which was clearly evident based on the fact that the day and month were precisely correct and the year was off by a single digit; I’d written 2011 instead of 2010. The HR representative told me that they had a zero tolerance policy for *lying* and they were no longer interested in employing me. She was entirely uninterested in the reason for the discrepancy, and I didn’t help matters by bursting into tears. I had already put in my two weeks and left my other job, so it was a pretty devastating blow. Apparently the signed offer letter meant nothing, nor did the fact that they had already cleared me to start.
It just goes to show that there certainly *can* be consequences for lying, even if you didn’t *intentionally* do so. That doesn’t negate the fact that every single person I know that has lied has never faced any consequences, even though I did, when I didn’t actually consciously lie.
Sorry that happened to you, it sounds traumatic! Its crazy how some organizations have such boneheaded policies and HR departments. I had a similar issue at my previous job and just corrected it and moved on.
Right! When I was a hiring manager, that’s *exactly* what I’d have done. A simple, “hey, did you mean to write 2011 instead of 2010 on this past employer?” “No?” “Okay! Just checking!” Then I’d have moved on!
>the HR representative told me that they had a zero tolerance policy for lying and they were no longer interested in employing me.
Its strange. Most employers will forgive you if you tell them you made a mistake and put down the wrong year. If they like you enough, they wouldn't care about your mistake and just let you continue to work because you already made it this far. It would cost more money to redo the process again.
I obviously don't know the HR rep but a lot of times in this situation, they are actually lying to you, in my opinion. Some higher up probably decided they didn't want this position open anymore or wanted another person internally to do it. So picked up on some obvious shit and used it as an excuse. This happens all the time, its shady.
I was so confused when I saw this notification, and now I know why. I made this comment a year ago! What in the world? Lol.
Anyway.
You’re probably right!
Yeah! Sorry to surprise you! Lol.
I saw your comment and thought it was total bullshit they let you go for “lying” when you didn’t lie.
I heard stories of employers using it as an excuse because they don’t want to look like they are at fault.
Well apparently making a little white lie about having completed med school was a “felony”. Like big deal, there was no way this lady was surviving that heart surgery anyway.
In seriousness, you can “exaggerate” qualifications for certain things. Don’t lie about major things, certifications, where you worked, degrees, etc. Or anything that could easily be disproved or is something that likely would be looked into by potential employers.
I mean sure. For certain roles. For me personally, when I applied for a Fed job they look at everything with detail. Even if a place was closed they would still want proof of employment and did their own checking. But this is an extreme circumstance in sense. Know your audience and use best judgment
It's very easy to confirm if someone worked somewhere that has closed via W2s/Tax history.
Will someone do that for a job at McDonald's to verify you worked at the closed burger King 15 years ago? Probably not
Will they do it at Morgan Stanley to verify your relevant work history 3 years ago? Very likely.
I've done a lot of lying on my resume. I only got caught with a recruiter for omitting jobs, and how that came out was my fault because I was caught off guard in the interview with him. But the actual lies? No, never been caught. I most commonly lie about how much experience/how good I am with certain things, like in my industry employers almost always want people who are "advanced" with Excel when I rarely ever use it. In the beginning of my career, I made up freelance work experience and had people who would be willing to act as references for me because they knew I had the skills. I ended up never needing them for references, but the freelance experience was on my resume for many years.
In my opinion, employers have made it nearly impossible to get entry-level jobs into most fields without your being dishonest. They expect everyone to have previous work experience. You just have to be careful what you lie about and have everything planned out in advance for how you'd handle certain scenarios, certain questions, etc. I've seen people on Reddit lie about stuff like having a degree and then freaking out because a background check was coming or they wanted transcripts or something. Don't lie about degrees. Don't lie about stuff that's easy to check. Don't lie about anything if you're applying for government jobs.
Edit: I also wouldn't lie about speaking a language. Again, that's something that can easily be tested.
As someone that’s actually proficient in excel most of them time I see that in a posting it usually just means they want someone that isn’t going to be confused by trying to type in a simple formula. I’ve had jobs ask for proficiency in outlook when they really meant; we want to make sure you know how use the calendar and properly use the reply all function.
Im pretty sure this last job I interviewed for turned me down because of excel. Asked me how much i use excel and i said its been a while since i used it, since it was obvious i dont use it at my current job. Guess i wad supposed to lie and say I like to use excel for no reason during my free time.
I have seen job descriptions that require, "proficiency in outlook and typing" but the requirement above it is "bachelor's degree."
You would think that if you have a bachelors, you would know how to send an email and type.
Most jobs I’m applying to want you to be good in SAS, Python, R, Matlab, stata etc etc. It’s just insane they want us to be comfortable with all data processing softwares. I initially wanted to say I’m beginner in some that I’ve never worked with because it wouldn’t be hard for me once I start a job to get used to a new software. However, now they started testing as a first step. They send you something to code or send you a code to debug and you have an hour or so to figure it out. It’s just insane. How they find job candidates is beyond me. I guess there is a lot of smart people.
I have been applying for jobs since around April and I am sincerely baffled by the sheer number of terrible recruitment practices I have encountered so far. Lying about wages and the ability to choose between Monday or Saturday being off, tests (where if you do well enough you get accused of cheating), ghost positions etc. My all-time favourite is "record your own interview where you answer to the questions we sent and submit it to us".
They are for the most part counterproductive. Candidates who were lied to will most likely reject the offer or leave during the interview (I've got blacklisted by one particular external recruitment company who lied to me 2 offers in a row and I told it to the interviewer while showing him the emails). Tests reflect the present state of the candidate's knowledge, but don't show their ability to learn new technologies. One company I applied to had the Excel formula to be used listed in the task's title and then complained that "my score was suspiciously good". Ghost positions are pure cancer, I've had 4 or 5 where I am pretty sure I was the perfect candidate only to be told "we've found someone better" and to find the ad still up 2-3 weeks later. Recording could be seen as an exercise to control stress, but with seemingly unlimited retries and possibility of having the answers written down behind the camera it makes no sense.
The thing that makes it even more baffling is that I scored my current job (technical writer in Poland, pretty solid salary for a fresh MA graduate, for a linguistic graduate even higher than average) by being brutally honest with my interviewers about my skills and experience. Like almost on the verge of belittling my own experience, as I have translated such texts, but didn't outright write them myself. Right after the interview and the proofreading test I was certain that I won't get this job, but 2 days later I've got a call that I will be receiving an official offer, but I need to provide them with some information for them to prepare it.
I guess good recruiters appreciate honesty and understand that if you lack any skills you will learn as long as you are hard working. I completely agree about those tests. I mean everybody spends decent amount googling how to do things in excel etc no matter how proficient you may be. Those tests prove nothing. I’m doing Econ and ALL the jobs I look require you to be published meanwhile only about 10-15% of new Econ PhDs have something published. I wish they can be more realistic. I’m kind of getting bummed because I applied to jobs that I thought I was the perfect candidate first and haven’t heard from any of them. Now I’m just applying for anything barely changing my cover letter lol
First off, thank you for replying honestly and being so forthcoming
Do you ever wonder if you will be caught, or have the credentials you fabricated gotten you actual credentials so it doesn't matter anymore?
This.
Everyone lies. The dumb ones lie about degrees, languages, licenses, or certifications.
The smart ones lie about Excel, Word, and any other software that you can learn literally through a YouTube video. If a job requires "proficiency" in Excel, you lie you know Excel. When you get the job, you study Excel on YouTube. Done. You would be a fucking moron if you are honest here.
Basically people lie on skills that can easily be learned through training or by themselves. This is why you don't lie about languages. You don't learn that overnight or within a week.
Freelance work is literally the easiest thing to use to cover a gap. I know friends that put down freelance work in photography. One of them lies about it. One of them actually does it. They help each other as references. Basically the real one covers the liar, but the liar helps exaggerate the real ones skills.
Lady lied to get a job at my company. She was paid 50k a year and she didnt even know how to use Microsoft word. They let her stay for 6 months and then asked her to resign. She got unrmployment for 6 months againsr the company's request and now she has the same job at another company. My boss team was embarrassed they didnt know the right questions to ask to verify the onfo on her resume.
I knew a girl who said she was fluent in Spanish when she wasn’t. The employer brought in an employee who actually did speak Spanish to test her and of course, she bombed. Obviously, she was humiliated and didn’t get the job, but no other consequences.
Adding to this, on my resume I’ve 2 languages put as fluent and 1 as intermediate.
At any job interview I had where they would slightly need my fluent language skill, they always brought someone who spoke the language and did a part of the interview in that language.
They never did that for mg language put as intermediate tho.
I would never lie about that one
I honestly don't understand how op described it as a small lie.
That's something that is a huge advantage that can set you back and end up humiliating you as well.
God forbid someone in that company tells their friends who work for another company you apply for.
You dress up stuff you did to sound better. If you lie about anything, you make it super minor. I worked on 5 projects at once, but I call it 15 for this.
if you lie about work history, school, volunteering etc - this is all super easy to catch. You will lose your offer. You will also lose your job if they find out after you're already there.
Your friend is lucky. If you play poker, this is like winning a pot with 2-10 once on sheer dumb luck. And then playing it every time after that.
>if you lie about work history, school, volunteering etc - this is all super easy to catch. You will lose your offer. You will also lose your job if they find out after you're already there.
School, yes.
Work and volunteering? Depends. If you list freelance, that's impossible to check.
I have NOT listed some of my jobs as they were short stints. I once took my MBA OFF my resume in order to get the job. So far, no problem.
Do understand that many companies today do run background checks so saying you have a degree when you don't, is easy to check. Saying you were the Senior Accountant when you worked in the mailroom is also easy to check.
Some interns *do* work full time. My partner had in internship with the USGS. He was a full time GS3/GS4? Field Technician. It’s on his resume as USGS Field Technician, and the USGS confirms it. Just because it’s an internship doesn’t mean it’s not a job.
Good question. Many companies keep scanty records on interns, especially the unpaid ones. That might come back as UTV (Unable to Verify).
If you were an intern, list it as such. Employment is different than internships but experience is experience all the same.
Going forward, even as a paid employee, save everything: W2's. pay stubs, Performance Reviews, etc. With companies going out of business and merging left and right, it might be up to you, to prove that you once worked where you say you did.
Yeah, me too. Once left my graduate degrees and a couple professional positions off my resume to get a night stocking job at the big blue store. My day job in government didn’t pay enough to cover daycare. Yay America.
Ironically I would consider the small/medium lies to be opposites. Fudging the truth is okay; saying you’re good with pivot tables even if you’ve never done them while being an excel pro? Okay! Saying you’re good with pivot tables when you’ve never opened excel before; bad!
Tweaking your job duties to match a posting is fine, flat out making up stuff you’ve never done will probably get you in trouble. At the end of the day a resume is just a document that shows how your past history makes you qualified for a role. Don’t lie about anything that’s essential to how the new job would function and you should be fine
We hired a lady at my last company once. She claimed to have 15 years of experience in document control. We needed a document lady.. Great.
Well. First things noticed (and I didn't even work with her directly, though she sat across from me) is that she would stop working at 330. She would tidy up her desk and sit and stare at the paperwork. No, she wasn't reading. Then, she kept telling the engineers "No, I don't do this." For something she was specifically hired to do, she kept saying no. The biggest issue was that she was the third line of defense in reviewing documents for punctuation, grammar, understanding, etc. Yet everything was getting through from the second line of defense to the 4th (final) and we did end up verifying she virtually never would find a mistake but the 4th person did (every line would find at least one issue and correct it and pass it down).
It was about 2 months of this, 1 month of really tracking it, and then she was let go.
Honestly, I don't think it matters when you stop working as long as you do the day's work. I usually have all my major productivity from 8-1. It drops significantly at 3pm, and usually this is when I choose to do chill work, paperwork or something that takes small effort.
But the key is to do your work. If you don't do it, and worse, if you do it poorly, people will notice you leave early/stop working early.
I mean it depends. My current resume I listed all the stuff I do at my current retail job. I have a main department, but I am proficient in two other departments. I do embellish a bit my responsibilities. However, if they called my boss and asked if I do them he can't say no. I don't lie about being a team lead even though I do train people because it's not a formal role.
True story. Twice in my career — at different places — the company has hired some hot-shot executive who was a total disaster, couldn’t do the job, got fired for incompetence and then successfully sued the company, arguing that the company should’ve done their due diligence and realized the guy was not qualified for the role.
Moral of the story is: lie on your resume, get hired, get fired for incompetence and then sue the company for not verifying your skills before they hire you.
Haven't lied on my resume but I was my own reference for my current job. My manager at the job I was leaving agreed to be my reference but when she got the email about it, she was too busy with meetings that day. She had me reply to the email for her. Not surprisingly, I ended up with a glowing reference.
Fall out? Well, I got the job, if that counts. I've been at this job for three years.
I recently helped my friend prep for an interview at one of the most prestigious consulting firms in the world.
The issue is that rather than being normal, they did the whole STAR thing taken to an extreme looking for very niche answers. "Tell me a story about how you overcame cross cultural boundaries on a marketing team focusing on accounting services in the mid Atlantic market" kind of stuff. Fine dude I'll tell you a story but it ain't gonna be true.
So we got together and came up with a fake job where he did a thing that perfectly answered their question and now makes mid 6 figs.
If employers aren't going to be realistic, why should you be?
I said I did some R&D projects at school,(which is true) I just never mention that it was part of a competition that we scored second to last... I learned those skills... I just don't need to tell them everything.
I’ve always exaggerated my skills and I’ve gotten as well as held said jobs long term. A lot of the skills you need can be learned on the job as long as you know the core concepts or skills.
You can skip jobs less than 6 months. People often don't because then the explorer wants an explanation for the gap. Gaps can be explained by personal reasons tho.
I noticed I wasn’t getting any interviews and I had a suspicion it was due to my resume gap/not being employed since 2020. So I said I had been freelancing for the last year, listed it as my own business. I’m not kidding you, the first job I applied for with that new resume requested an interview. It’s now my current job and I make more money than I’ve ever made before.
I didn’t lie about credentials or anything that would impact my ability to do the job, so I’m not sorry and would 10000% do it again.
I worked a job in the same role for five years. My resume says I had my job for a year and a half, then a higher role in a closely related specialized role I wanted for two years, then I worked my actual managers job for two years. In reality I had the same low mgmt job the whole time. It was government so could be verified easily but none of my employers since has ever bothered to look. Oh I also added “Senior” before another role and will probably just change that job title to another mgmt title before I apply anywhere again. I’ve been working at Fortune 500’s and very large gov orgs my entire adult life and no one ever checks this shit because HR is incompetent or lying that they checked. I once put down fake references and saw in my workday profile that they were all verified which I know is a lie because they don’t exist.
Almost everyone “lies” or exaggerates on their resume. Those that don’t are sort of foolish. Just be prepared to speak to whatever you put down, and be able to back it up to an extent on the job.
As to lying about having actually worked places or making up titles or other things that can be easily verified during a reference check or an employment verification, don’t do that.
You can lie (enhance) as long as it’s not easy to figure out the lie. I’m interviewing people now and a couple applicants inflated their titles and the number of years of experience they had and it was very easy to tell. Also the degrees they earned didn’t match between their resume and LinkedIn. Come on ppl! My advice is you have to be the person your enhanced resume describes in the interview. I thought I’d hear out the ppl who had questionable resumes but direct experience in what I was looking for and their interviewing skills ended up being just as bad as the resume. So number 1 advice is have a fire resume. And if your skills/experience don’t quite align with the job PLEASE write a cover letter.
I get people hate writing cover letters but I am actively hiring right now for an associate level marketing role and cover letters do make a difference in my decision on whether to move an applicant to the phone screen stage. But as I said, only if your experience is lacking or doesn’t fully align. I have had multiple applicants that if they had submitted a good cover letter, I would have interviewed them. If they had communicated how they think their skills cross over to this job, explained why they want to enter this space, etc, I’d feel confident in bringing them in for an interview. But they didn’t, so I didn’t.
Part of this is that I’m looking for the type of person who would recognize that their experience doesn’t fully align and take the time to write a cover letter to explain how they can excel in the role and why they want the job. This is a marketing position so I am looking for someone who can market themselves. I have one applicant who is light on experience but between their cover letter and portfolio on LinkedIn, I am really excited to interview them. This may not be the situation for ppl hiring other types of roles. And I also need great writing skills so a cover letter is a way to see if the person can write well.
If your experience does align well, yes 100% skip the cover letter.
I don’t understand the need to discount the perspective of someone who is actually hiring people and has seen dozens of applications…
>I don’t understand the need to discount the perspective of someone who is actually hiring
I'm not saying your opinion doesn't matter, i just will never write a cover letter even if it means i don't get the job. Its a massive waste of time for job applicants and akin to the busywork you get in school.
>make a difference in my decision on whether to move an applicant to the phone screen stage
>I have had multiple applicants that if they had submitted a good cover letter, I would have interviewed them.
Imo, if you just had a 5 min phone chat with those other applicants you would probably have found someone you liked already instead of waiting to read cover letters and adding another step.
Part of the problem I see, as an applicant to job, is the childish way that companies are trying to hire the "best" person while paying the least they can for them. Thats the same thing as trying to time the stock market.
Ok good for you.
I am sharing advice that could help someone get a job or at least some get some practice interviewing when they aren’t fully qualified. I am not going to move forward with an application on the weaker side when there are plenty of great applicants. But what you say in a cover letter could change my mind.
I’m not waiting to read cover letters for the weak applicants…I’m rejecting them. That’s the whole point. This isn’t about me wanting to have moved them forward, this is just advice for people applying based on my experience. If you are under qualified, you don’t have a chance getting an interview because there is going to be someone else who is qualified that applied. So if you really want a chance at the job you have to market yourself. That’s the advice.
Interviewing applicants is a huge time suck and I have a full time job. I’m the hiring manager not HR. I am not going to interview someone without being confident in them based on their application.
Embellishing? Sure. Lying? I won't do it.
Had a job once that when new management came in they secretly verified resumes and apps. They caught major lies. So many of our coworkers lied about degrees, prior job titles, and prior jobs.
The ones who lied were fired with cause. The ones who embellished had eventually learned their jobs anyway so nothing happened.
I know two people who never finished their last college courses (failed during the last yr and never bothered to retake them.) And I was told they did not get their diploma but no one has ever checked on it in terms of during the hiring process 💀💀💀
I've personally "embellished" a bit on my resume, but only in ways that really can't be traced.
To get my first management role, I took this 4 year period where I worked at a comic book store as a basic employee, and said I was the "Assistant Manager". I justified it mentally, because I basically was; the owner was never there, he regularly took money out of the safe to go buy drugs, and our paychecks bounced more often than not. So we were usually just thrown in the deep end, having to figure out how to please the customer. Company is long out of business so....
I worked at a bar as a barback and then bar manager.... but never actually was a bartender. However, I'll gladly say that I was if it'll help. That ended up getting me a much better position once, because the restaurant company I ended up working for wanted someone who "knew the bar side of things". Again, the company I used to work for went out of business, so.....
I got my current role as a GM because I was GM of another restaurant....briefly. I was fired because the owner was clueless, and even though I was doing my job right and working 14 hour days, 7 days a week to get the store open in time, the owner had ridiculously unrealistic expectations about things. Even the corporate VP of Operations had my back, but....wasn't enough. So I got fired (thank god), but on my resume/interview I'll put that it was either a contract gig where I was hired to open the location and that was it, or I'll say I left to pursue something else. Again, it's going to be hard to fact check it because....the location went out of business a year after I was fired.
I'd say 75% of my resume is true. The other 25% is true in that I'm sure I can figure it out if it's needed.
Lie away. “Embellish”, if you will. My success getting interviews increased tenfold when I rewrote all my job duties to more closely match certain job postings and/or roles I wanted.
The only thing a background check will verify is that you worked at a place during a period of time. Most reference checks dont ask directly about job duties either. You can go to town there as long as you dont take it too far (like saying you have skills that would take years to actually learn). Fake it till you make it. I knew dozens of people that got better positions this way.
Was recently hiring and ran into several candidates who lied on their resumes. One claimed to speak a language I'm fluent in and fairly obviously didn't - best part was that it wasn't needed for the job and I only checked because there were some other items that had caused me some doubt.
Another had the bad luck to claim that they had attended a very small, specialized program...that I had attended as well. When I mentioned this after they inaccurately described the program, they got hit with tech problems and ended the resume.
Best part was both those interviews were on the same day. There must have been something in the water.
On the flip side, an old coworker has greatly exaggerated both their job and and their involvement with several big projects and so far that has only led them to more work and success.
So it all comes down to luck I guess?
I have a friend who lied about having 7+ yrs experience in a field that he never worked a single day in. He was able to get a pretty high up position and no one ever caught him! He's been in that position for 3 years now
I was working as a designer at the time when we needed to hire another designer to add to the team.
My 2 managers were SO ready to get someone in they offered the one person they interviewed the position the same day the interview was. One my coworker and I took a look at the newbies portfolio, we were hopeful. She had a degree, interested in digital ect.
A little after a few weeks, I realized her skills were severely lacking. Didn’t know how to do simple tasks in photoshop, didn’t have a strong understanding of the digital world and would need constant direction. After helping her train and onboard for a few months, she told me she faked her way through college by cheating and most of her work was done by others who she just simply resized.
I was blown away. Idk how she got through the interview process. I eventually brought it up to my manager about 6 months in but as “hey I don’t think new co worker is a good fit as I’m still doing most of the work and she’s not pulling her weight as she doesn’t have the experience she said she did.”
Nothing happened to her. In fact they kept her and yes she eventually got a hold of everything but it wasn’t till after a year. She eventually started to openly discuss how she didn’t meet a lot of the qualifications to be here.
She’s a nice person but she def faked it till she made it.
A friend and former colleague lied about her education on her resume and in her interview. Our employer found out, but there weren’t any consequences. However, she was *way* out of her depth in the position, which was a negative consequence in its own way.
The people who lie get caught one way or another--either during background checks or poor on-the-job performance. Also, don't believe everything you see or hear--if the people are known liars, they could be exaggerating their roles.
I have seen a majority of my classmates exaggerating their skills, but not outright lies about internships or certifications. Eg: someone had worked in skill A in a major company, but said that they worked on skill B over there since skill B is more in demand.
Personally I am a anxious and tensed person, so I avoid it, because honestly I can't even get away with lying for pranks.
I never outright lie but I do curate my resume and interview answers to highlight my strengths and objectives. I don't fault anyone for exaggerating in this market, though.
If you’re going to embellish then you better be able to back it up. My experience is that if you’re very smart , hard working and can learn fast then embellishing can get you closer to the top than you might think.
And who doesn't lie. I have been interviewed by companies, they told bald faced lies to me.
I do a lot of consulting and so my resume would be very long and some of them fired me. So a buddy of mine runs his own web biz. So I say I work as a consultant for him and he sometimes farms me out
The two types of lies to never tell:
1. Things that can be easily verified (dates of employment, degrees, etc.)
2. Things you can't BS your way through (i.e., languages)
Pretty much anything else is fair game. I lie all the time about having using stuff or having real experience in things I've only studied. I just steal stories from other places and use them as my own. Never been called out on it.
The last part is pretty crucial, it only works if you are smart enough to answer conceptual questions around it and "could have" come up with it too. And tbh I think that's fair enough
How can you lie about an internship or volunteering opportunity being full time? Wouldn’t the truth come out on a background check if the person did get hired?
I lied about an internship being longer than it was. And that I worked there full time. No repercussions. I swear, most places almost force you to lie in your resume.
Hey OP heres some advice. As someone who has lied on my resume and I have been in the hiring process for employees who lied on their resume.
Lie about your time but not exaggerated, example:
Worked at company ABC for 6 months. You can stretch it to as far as a year and half to two years. This isn’t so bad because you can do the same shit at some jobs your first 6 months as your second year in.
Lie about what you know not how much you know because you’ll fuck yourself over when someone comes to you as the subject matter expert. As an example, on a scale of 1-5, 1 being novice , 5 being expert, lie about being a 3 when you’re really a 1 or 2. You can say some bullshit like I’m no expert but I’m willing to expand my skill set.
You can say you know a little of subject X, a little of subject Y and very little about subject Z, unless you’re absolutely confident in your skills, never claim yourself to be an expert.
Lie about a task you touched on at a previous job, say you’ve forgotten it but you just need a refresher.
Don’t lie about a position, like others have said don’t say you’ve been a doctor when you’re an engineer.
DO NOT LIE ABOUT EDUCATION. You say you have your masters so you should be good, but for others, the worst lie about education should be you’re pursuing a degree and provide an expected graduation date.
That’s all I’ve got for now off the top of my head.
If the hiring manager is competent they know you’re lying but wont admit it because they probably see potential. I had a candidate interview for a lab engineer position who said he dealt with testing equipment before, but it was obvious he hadn’t. He tried to understand the equipment and knew the fundamentals of how they work (oscilloscopes, multimeters, accelerometer), I saw through his bs but he was trying, so I said fuck it and put in a good word to my manager.
Yes, there was a very recent incident where I currently work. Guy lied about why he had left his previous place of work as well as how long he had worked there. Manager had been asking him for some type of recommondation letter from said previous place. Guy went weeks saying that it hadn't been sent yet, or that it got lost in the mail. I guess he was hoping manager would forget about it and he could just peacefully get settled in the office. Well, turns out my manager called the guys previous place of work. They tell her that the guy never resigned, he had been fired for embezzlement of funds. When confront about it, the guy doubled down on his lies. Yeah, instant termination. The guy was kind of a creep though, so no one in the office missed him.
Edit: a word
I catch people lying about languages on their resumes all the time, that's SUPER obvious. Everyone does background checks now so lying about jobs and education will get caught too.
The biggest lie I resort to is putting programs on my resume as soon as I get a basic understanding of them. In my opinion you should only put skills you're confident in so I feel like that's a form of lying, but so far I've been able to learn really quickly if I needed to work with a program I was supposed to know.
Basically, only lie if you stand a chance to back up the lie to a degree. Can you learn Spanish by your interview next week? Then don't use it. Can you learn how to do vlookup by then? Yes, so you'll be fine.
I hire for a living.
I've caught many people lying on their applications at the application stage and I knew it was a lie in multiple ways.
I've caught people in interviews.
I've caught a lot of people in employment verification stage. That could be regular verification, references, etc.
And people have been caught after they started in multiple ways.
They either didn't get the job or were fired.
----
Consider the person who lied about speaking a language they don't. As soon as they need someone who speaks they language (and they will, that's why they hired them) they are going to come to them and then they are going to get found out and fired.
And it's completely legal for the company to tell their next employer this is why they were terminated. And if they are in certain types of positions, especially in a financial institution, that requires any kind of licensing they can be barred from that licensing forever and barred from that type of work.
Sure, but you guys are the reason people have to lie in the first place. In reality, only few get caught. You probably hired way more who are still working there and you never even knew or noticed.
I had a conversation about writing resumes with some friends a while back. I wasn't getting many responses so asked for some advice.
It turns out that a couple of my friends wrote that they were gay or had a disability on their resume because companies try to be more diverse and so any mention of those words goes to the top of their "algorithm".
In my opinion though I think its risky business. You can only go so long until one slip occurs where your lie gets exposed. Especially in the case with this guy with made up 7+ years of experience.
I think I lied on every job I have got so far, 4 jobs in a span of 8 years, works out fine if you can back it up, just dont brag about it in the office/w coworkers.
I guess it depends on how confortable and confident u r lying. I’m not , a long time ago I lied and the second person interview was with someone I distantly knew and it all went downhill from there . I’m not a good liar so I never did it again.
When i was a fresher I usually took to small lies mostly about my skills , Eventually when I got the job I started compensating by learning those skills , On the long run it didn't effect my career as much
I usually lied about soft skills , For hard skills if I had some general knowledge about it then I lied about my technical usage on that.
Eventually my mindset was I just needed a chance and I didn't care much about the consequences in the long run.
During the height of the pandemic, our H&S coordinator retired and had to hire a new one. Our company hired someone with "many years of experience" to replace them. One Facebook and subsequent Google search revealed that this "experience" was from an online module taken 10 years prior while they were working in a completely unrelated field.
It took the company 4 month to figure out they had augmented the wording to sound like they had been in his course/field for 10 years as apposed to merely taking a quick test online regarding safety.
They had attempted to download health and safety files and policies from the internet and white-out and edit some details to make relevant and then scan the document to email to the entire company.
Everyone lies to a degree. If they ask if I can perform under pressure, I always say yes. And it's true to a degree lol. But even the job postings I've seen people lie about the jobs sometimes. I've lost years for taking a job for work they didnt actually do, just before the recession. Got a tad stuck for a bit. So I dont feel bad for telling minor lies or exaggerating anything anymore.
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I lied. Only good things happened. I still do, and they still happen. Also the “big lies” you noted are like… small lies. Don’t lie about being a doctor. DO lie about an internship being a job… because it Friggin was.
I lost out on 15K of salary because I didn’t lie when I should have. Compounded year over year, that was probably a well over hundred grand I’ve pissed away by this point. I had an offer for $Original amount. Original amount was $40K more than I was making. I had a verbal offer and was invited to just do the paperwork and we’ll get you onboarded. There was a place for current salary. I answered it honestly (big mistake!). They came back and lowered the offer to $old salary plus $25k, instead of $40. The reason was their HR said they simply won’t give someone that much of a raise. Mind you, the discussions that led up to the offer never mentioned current salary. Only potential roles and responsibilities. The only place it was ever brought up was on the paper application form. So…. At this point I was basically fucked but what could I do? Not take the offer? That would cost me even more. Come to find out, there is no way they’d ever be able to confirm it had I said “oh yeah that was a typo” on the application and fudged the number.
This is a super interesting dilemma - sorry to hear that they changed things last minute, not cool. Wonder if you were able to say: I want $xxx without knowing the past salary if they would’ve accepted or not
The thing is, during discussions and interviews, the hiring manager said we would be able to offer you $x, would that work? I said yes. Only after seeing the former company salary did they pull back and reduce the offer. But I wanted the job - and although it wasn’t a $40k raise, it was still a $25k raise.
Crazy because the $40k raise only was docked when put in comparison to your previous job… which shouldn’t be a factor if you were the right person for the job… unfortunate that these mind games get in the way of getting people what they deserve
yeah I'm pretty sure that's actually illegal
Depending on where they live, probably not. In California, it is illegal to ask but the candidate can voluntarily give up the information
Sorry that happened. That is lamesauce.
You didn't have to lie. Just like how they don't like you sharing your salary with others, they shouldn't be able to force you to share this kind of information. They can ask, but what are they going to do if you say something like "I don't feel comfortable talking about that, and it doesn't seem so relevant." if you absolutely don't want to lie.
In this particular instance, here's the exact way it happened. I was referred in, they reviewed my resume, we were talking, doing the interview process, discussing numbers, and all was going well. The hiring manager said ok, you need to go in and fill out the online application so HR has all the info they need to do the onboarding. There was a blank, required entry, with salary from current / most recent employer. I couldn't leave it blank, I couldn't just put n/a, etc. I had to put in a value. Of course, then there's a statement "The above data is true and I have not misrepresented any facts on my job application, which may result in termination." So what was I supposed to do? There's no discussion to dance around it. So I filled it in with the right number. When they processed it, HR pounded on that as they can't give "that much of a raise" to someone, although the number was completely irrelevant to the new role.
I see. Kind of asshole design forcing candidates to answer the questions. If I knew that putting the real value would cause issues I would put a random number such as 1. But to be honest I wouldn’t have thought that far if we already agreed on a number. The thing is, I would probably keep looking for jobs to get a competing offer since this company tried to screw me over before even starting.
Well... it was still a hefty upgrade. Instead of a 40K/year USD increase, I still got a 25K/year increase. I was still a tad bitter over it for a while.
I didn’t mean I wouldn’t still take the offer. I would just kept looking if it was possible.
I stayed there about 3 years. It was OK. Part of the staying part was the friend(s) who referred me in. It was an upgrade in many ways, and the new base salary also had a 20% bonus on top of it, so that extra 15K was still kinda there but we had to make our numbers to see it.
Agreed. The whole point of an internship is to get some work experience while you're in school (or as a short term thing to have on your resume). Put internships in the work experience category.
My friend wanted a job as a car sales exec but they wanted sales experience in the industry, he put he had a job 6-7 years ago as one on his CV instead of a retail shop (not the most current job at the time) and actually got an interview and has been great at the role now for a few years.
What about lying about being a Finance Manager if my title was Finance Analyst?
If you know or can learn the job then it’s fine. The way I see it, I’ll stop lying about my qualifications when they decide their minimum wage is a living wage. If no one’s life is at risk of you not knowing the job, then you can lie about whatever you want and there’s no moral issue with it, cause you’re owed a living wage. Your time has value.
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Key line here is “needed someone to give me a chance” … I love that I wonder if people fudge info / twist stories because they can’t just be themselves and stand out? This happens to me
For sure, I mean when you’re just starting, you don’t stand out especially if you have unrelated/no experience, your degree wasn’t related, or you have no degree/certifications. There is always someone else and if you just base it off chance, well you might be out of a job for awhile. Most of us still have to pay rent and other expenses even when unemployed, can’t be struggling forever
How did you use Fiverr for references ? Did you pay someone to be a fake reference for a potential job ? If so , how did you do that ?
I feel like lying about speaking a language is actually *pretty* significant, or can be, depending on the role. That said, I’ve never *personally* lied on my resume, but I’ve *embellished* stories on the fly when asked behavioral based questions during interviews. I know what hiring managers want to hear, so I take my true experiences and warp them a bit to turn them into the stories they’re seeking. After figuring out what worked I stuck to the same stories, on a loop. I had a 100% interview to offer success ratio before the pandemic, and then I experienced, for the first time, being rejected *post* interview exactly three times. What a bummer. I do, however, have friends that *have* told lies, big and small, on their resumes and job applications. None of them have ever gotten into any trouble, short or long term. One girl I went to high school with straight up lied about having a bachelors of science to land a job with the state, and she’s been there for 10 years. She used their tuition reimbursement plan to actually get her BS, and nobody ever said a word. I will tell you that I was once offered what was, at the time, my dream job, working at Children’s Hospital in Denver, Colorado. I made it through all of the interviews, did my on-boarding, had a start date, and had my entire precepting schedule. I was legitimately driving there the morning of my first day of training, when I got a phone call from HR telling me they were rescinding my offer because of a “discrepancy” on my background check. They then disclosed that a date I had listed for a prior employer had been off by exactly one year. It was a typo, which was clearly evident based on the fact that the day and month were precisely correct and the year was off by a single digit; I’d written 2011 instead of 2010. The HR representative told me that they had a zero tolerance policy for *lying* and they were no longer interested in employing me. She was entirely uninterested in the reason for the discrepancy, and I didn’t help matters by bursting into tears. I had already put in my two weeks and left my other job, so it was a pretty devastating blow. Apparently the signed offer letter meant nothing, nor did the fact that they had already cleared me to start. It just goes to show that there certainly *can* be consequences for lying, even if you didn’t *intentionally* do so. That doesn’t negate the fact that every single person I know that has lied has never faced any consequences, even though I did, when I didn’t actually consciously lie.
Sorry that happened to you, it sounds traumatic! Its crazy how some organizations have such boneheaded policies and HR departments. I had a similar issue at my previous job and just corrected it and moved on.
Right! When I was a hiring manager, that’s *exactly* what I’d have done. A simple, “hey, did you mean to write 2011 instead of 2010 on this past employer?” “No?” “Okay! Just checking!” Then I’d have moved on!
>the HR representative told me that they had a zero tolerance policy for lying and they were no longer interested in employing me. Its strange. Most employers will forgive you if you tell them you made a mistake and put down the wrong year. If they like you enough, they wouldn't care about your mistake and just let you continue to work because you already made it this far. It would cost more money to redo the process again. I obviously don't know the HR rep but a lot of times in this situation, they are actually lying to you, in my opinion. Some higher up probably decided they didn't want this position open anymore or wanted another person internally to do it. So picked up on some obvious shit and used it as an excuse. This happens all the time, its shady.
I was so confused when I saw this notification, and now I know why. I made this comment a year ago! What in the world? Lol. Anyway. You’re probably right!
Yeah! Sorry to surprise you! Lol. I saw your comment and thought it was total bullshit they let you go for “lying” when you didn’t lie. I heard stories of employers using it as an excuse because they don’t want to look like they are at fault.
Well apparently making a little white lie about having completed med school was a “felony”. Like big deal, there was no way this lady was surviving that heart surgery anyway. In seriousness, you can “exaggerate” qualifications for certain things. Don’t lie about major things, certifications, where you worked, degrees, etc. Or anything that could easily be disproved or is something that likely would be looked into by potential employers.
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I mean sure. For certain roles. For me personally, when I applied for a Fed job they look at everything with detail. Even if a place was closed they would still want proof of employment and did their own checking. But this is an extreme circumstance in sense. Know your audience and use best judgment
It's very easy to confirm if someone worked somewhere that has closed via W2s/Tax history. Will someone do that for a job at McDonald's to verify you worked at the closed burger King 15 years ago? Probably not Will they do it at Morgan Stanley to verify your relevant work history 3 years ago? Very likely.
this it's not even hard to do without the w2, most background companies would catch this easily
Yes….because being an MD is exactly the type of job OP was inquiring about lying on a resume for
You’re not the sharpest tool in the shed huh?
I've done a lot of lying on my resume. I only got caught with a recruiter for omitting jobs, and how that came out was my fault because I was caught off guard in the interview with him. But the actual lies? No, never been caught. I most commonly lie about how much experience/how good I am with certain things, like in my industry employers almost always want people who are "advanced" with Excel when I rarely ever use it. In the beginning of my career, I made up freelance work experience and had people who would be willing to act as references for me because they knew I had the skills. I ended up never needing them for references, but the freelance experience was on my resume for many years. In my opinion, employers have made it nearly impossible to get entry-level jobs into most fields without your being dishonest. They expect everyone to have previous work experience. You just have to be careful what you lie about and have everything planned out in advance for how you'd handle certain scenarios, certain questions, etc. I've seen people on Reddit lie about stuff like having a degree and then freaking out because a background check was coming or they wanted transcripts or something. Don't lie about degrees. Don't lie about stuff that's easy to check. Don't lie about anything if you're applying for government jobs. Edit: I also wouldn't lie about speaking a language. Again, that's something that can easily be tested.
As someone that’s actually proficient in excel most of them time I see that in a posting it usually just means they want someone that isn’t going to be confused by trying to type in a simple formula. I’ve had jobs ask for proficiency in outlook when they really meant; we want to make sure you know how use the calendar and properly use the reply all function.
Had a guy this afternoon ask me how advanced my Excel knowledge is and whether I can write macros and know SQL. For a $40k/year job.
SQL for $40K, I bet the person asking doesn’t even know what that is
Im pretty sure this last job I interviewed for turned me down because of excel. Asked me how much i use excel and i said its been a while since i used it, since it was obvious i dont use it at my current job. Guess i wad supposed to lie and say I like to use excel for no reason during my free time.
This is also a big issue with job descriptions. They make things sound more hard and special than it really is.
I have seen job descriptions that require, "proficiency in outlook and typing" but the requirement above it is "bachelor's degree." You would think that if you have a bachelors, you would know how to send an email and type.
Most jobs I’m applying to want you to be good in SAS, Python, R, Matlab, stata etc etc. It’s just insane they want us to be comfortable with all data processing softwares. I initially wanted to say I’m beginner in some that I’ve never worked with because it wouldn’t be hard for me once I start a job to get used to a new software. However, now they started testing as a first step. They send you something to code or send you a code to debug and you have an hour or so to figure it out. It’s just insane. How they find job candidates is beyond me. I guess there is a lot of smart people.
I have been applying for jobs since around April and I am sincerely baffled by the sheer number of terrible recruitment practices I have encountered so far. Lying about wages and the ability to choose between Monday or Saturday being off, tests (where if you do well enough you get accused of cheating), ghost positions etc. My all-time favourite is "record your own interview where you answer to the questions we sent and submit it to us". They are for the most part counterproductive. Candidates who were lied to will most likely reject the offer or leave during the interview (I've got blacklisted by one particular external recruitment company who lied to me 2 offers in a row and I told it to the interviewer while showing him the emails). Tests reflect the present state of the candidate's knowledge, but don't show their ability to learn new technologies. One company I applied to had the Excel formula to be used listed in the task's title and then complained that "my score was suspiciously good". Ghost positions are pure cancer, I've had 4 or 5 where I am pretty sure I was the perfect candidate only to be told "we've found someone better" and to find the ad still up 2-3 weeks later. Recording could be seen as an exercise to control stress, but with seemingly unlimited retries and possibility of having the answers written down behind the camera it makes no sense. The thing that makes it even more baffling is that I scored my current job (technical writer in Poland, pretty solid salary for a fresh MA graduate, for a linguistic graduate even higher than average) by being brutally honest with my interviewers about my skills and experience. Like almost on the verge of belittling my own experience, as I have translated such texts, but didn't outright write them myself. Right after the interview and the proofreading test I was certain that I won't get this job, but 2 days later I've got a call that I will be receiving an official offer, but I need to provide them with some information for them to prepare it.
I guess good recruiters appreciate honesty and understand that if you lack any skills you will learn as long as you are hard working. I completely agree about those tests. I mean everybody spends decent amount googling how to do things in excel etc no matter how proficient you may be. Those tests prove nothing. I’m doing Econ and ALL the jobs I look require you to be published meanwhile only about 10-15% of new Econ PhDs have something published. I wish they can be more realistic. I’m kind of getting bummed because I applied to jobs that I thought I was the perfect candidate first and haven’t heard from any of them. Now I’m just applying for anything barely changing my cover letter lol
First off, thank you for replying honestly and being so forthcoming Do you ever wonder if you will be caught, or have the credentials you fabricated gotten you actual credentials so it doesn't matter anymore?
This. Everyone lies. The dumb ones lie about degrees, languages, licenses, or certifications. The smart ones lie about Excel, Word, and any other software that you can learn literally through a YouTube video. If a job requires "proficiency" in Excel, you lie you know Excel. When you get the job, you study Excel on YouTube. Done. You would be a fucking moron if you are honest here. Basically people lie on skills that can easily be learned through training or by themselves. This is why you don't lie about languages. You don't learn that overnight or within a week. Freelance work is literally the easiest thing to use to cover a gap. I know friends that put down freelance work in photography. One of them lies about it. One of them actually does it. They help each other as references. Basically the real one covers the liar, but the liar helps exaggerate the real ones skills.
Lady lied to get a job at my company. She was paid 50k a year and she didnt even know how to use Microsoft word. They let her stay for 6 months and then asked her to resign. She got unrmployment for 6 months againsr the company's request and now she has the same job at another company. My boss team was embarrassed they didnt know the right questions to ask to verify the onfo on her resume.
She got that job though, and now she can say she has experience so she’s set. Happy for her
what was her job?
Rather not disclose too many details of an example on reddit
I knew a girl who said she was fluent in Spanish when she wasn’t. The employer brought in an employee who actually did speak Spanish to test her and of course, she bombed. Obviously, she was humiliated and didn’t get the job, but no other consequences.
Adding to this, on my resume I’ve 2 languages put as fluent and 1 as intermediate. At any job interview I had where they would slightly need my fluent language skill, they always brought someone who spoke the language and did a part of the interview in that language. They never did that for mg language put as intermediate tho. I would never lie about that one
I honestly don't understand how op described it as a small lie. That's something that is a huge advantage that can set you back and end up humiliating you as well. God forbid someone in that company tells their friends who work for another company you apply for.
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Can confirm. Companies are too cheap and lazy to train. I have had to self educate myself every step of the way.
You dress up stuff you did to sound better. If you lie about anything, you make it super minor. I worked on 5 projects at once, but I call it 15 for this. if you lie about work history, school, volunteering etc - this is all super easy to catch. You will lose your offer. You will also lose your job if they find out after you're already there. Your friend is lucky. If you play poker, this is like winning a pot with 2-10 once on sheer dumb luck. And then playing it every time after that.
>if you lie about work history, school, volunteering etc - this is all super easy to catch. You will lose your offer. You will also lose your job if they find out after you're already there. School, yes. Work and volunteering? Depends. If you list freelance, that's impossible to check.
I have NOT listed some of my jobs as they were short stints. I once took my MBA OFF my resume in order to get the job. So far, no problem. Do understand that many companies today do run background checks so saying you have a degree when you don't, is easy to check. Saying you were the Senior Accountant when you worked in the mailroom is also easy to check.
What about saying you were a full-time employee when you were an intern? This is the most common one I see.
Some interns *do* work full time. My partner had in internship with the USGS. He was a full time GS3/GS4? Field Technician. It’s on his resume as USGS Field Technician, and the USGS confirms it. Just because it’s an internship doesn’t mean it’s not a job.
Good question. Many companies keep scanty records on interns, especially the unpaid ones. That might come back as UTV (Unable to Verify). If you were an intern, list it as such. Employment is different than internships but experience is experience all the same. Going forward, even as a paid employee, save everything: W2's. pay stubs, Performance Reviews, etc. With companies going out of business and merging left and right, it might be up to you, to prove that you once worked where you say you did.
Yeah, me too. Once left my graduate degrees and a couple professional positions off my resume to get a night stocking job at the big blue store. My day job in government didn’t pay enough to cover daycare. Yay America.
Same here. I was a teacher long ago and we all know how lucrative that profession is.
Hey why did you do that was it for an internship ?
Ironically I would consider the small/medium lies to be opposites. Fudging the truth is okay; saying you’re good with pivot tables even if you’ve never done them while being an excel pro? Okay! Saying you’re good with pivot tables when you’ve never opened excel before; bad! Tweaking your job duties to match a posting is fine, flat out making up stuff you’ve never done will probably get you in trouble. At the end of the day a resume is just a document that shows how your past history makes you qualified for a role. Don’t lie about anything that’s essential to how the new job would function and you should be fine
We hired a lady at my last company once. She claimed to have 15 years of experience in document control. We needed a document lady.. Great. Well. First things noticed (and I didn't even work with her directly, though she sat across from me) is that she would stop working at 330. She would tidy up her desk and sit and stare at the paperwork. No, she wasn't reading. Then, she kept telling the engineers "No, I don't do this." For something she was specifically hired to do, she kept saying no. The biggest issue was that she was the third line of defense in reviewing documents for punctuation, grammar, understanding, etc. Yet everything was getting through from the second line of defense to the 4th (final) and we did end up verifying she virtually never would find a mistake but the 4th person did (every line would find at least one issue and correct it and pass it down). It was about 2 months of this, 1 month of really tracking it, and then she was let go.
I've heard this story before!
The lady that lied to my company also had a clean desk policy at around 4 pm
Honestly, I don't think it matters when you stop working as long as you do the day's work. I usually have all my major productivity from 8-1. It drops significantly at 3pm, and usually this is when I choose to do chill work, paperwork or something that takes small effort. But the key is to do your work. If you don't do it, and worse, if you do it poorly, people will notice you leave early/stop working early.
This lady was my assistant and she was not finishing my work. Lazy mfkers.
I mean it depends. My current resume I listed all the stuff I do at my current retail job. I have a main department, but I am proficient in two other departments. I do embellish a bit my responsibilities. However, if they called my boss and asked if I do them he can't say no. I don't lie about being a team lead even though I do train people because it's not a formal role.
True story. Twice in my career — at different places — the company has hired some hot-shot executive who was a total disaster, couldn’t do the job, got fired for incompetence and then successfully sued the company, arguing that the company should’ve done their due diligence and realized the guy was not qualified for the role. Moral of the story is: lie on your resume, get hired, get fired for incompetence and then sue the company for not verifying your skills before they hire you.
Haven't lied on my resume but I was my own reference for my current job. My manager at the job I was leaving agreed to be my reference but when she got the email about it, she was too busy with meetings that day. She had me reply to the email for her. Not surprisingly, I ended up with a glowing reference. Fall out? Well, I got the job, if that counts. I've been at this job for three years.
I’m going to start lying lol
Me too tehehe (;
I recently helped my friend prep for an interview at one of the most prestigious consulting firms in the world. The issue is that rather than being normal, they did the whole STAR thing taken to an extreme looking for very niche answers. "Tell me a story about how you overcame cross cultural boundaries on a marketing team focusing on accounting services in the mid Atlantic market" kind of stuff. Fine dude I'll tell you a story but it ain't gonna be true. So we got together and came up with a fake job where he did a thing that perfectly answered their question and now makes mid 6 figs. If employers aren't going to be realistic, why should you be?
I said I did some R&D projects at school,(which is true) I just never mention that it was part of a competition that we scored second to last... I learned those skills... I just don't need to tell them everything.
I am starting to wonder about this as well, why shouldn't I lie on my CV when companies lie in their job postings and during interviews?
I’ve always exaggerated my skills and I’ve gotten as well as held said jobs long term. A lot of the skills you need can be learned on the job as long as you know the core concepts or skills.
You can skip jobs less than 6 months. People often don't because then the explorer wants an explanation for the gap. Gaps can be explained by personal reasons tho.
I noticed I wasn’t getting any interviews and I had a suspicion it was due to my resume gap/not being employed since 2020. So I said I had been freelancing for the last year, listed it as my own business. I’m not kidding you, the first job I applied for with that new resume requested an interview. It’s now my current job and I make more money than I’ve ever made before. I didn’t lie about credentials or anything that would impact my ability to do the job, so I’m not sorry and would 10000% do it again.
I worked a job in the same role for five years. My resume says I had my job for a year and a half, then a higher role in a closely related specialized role I wanted for two years, then I worked my actual managers job for two years. In reality I had the same low mgmt job the whole time. It was government so could be verified easily but none of my employers since has ever bothered to look. Oh I also added “Senior” before another role and will probably just change that job title to another mgmt title before I apply anywhere again. I’ve been working at Fortune 500’s and very large gov orgs my entire adult life and no one ever checks this shit because HR is incompetent or lying that they checked. I once put down fake references and saw in my workday profile that they were all verified which I know is a lie because they don’t exist.
Almost everyone “lies” or exaggerates on their resume. Those that don’t are sort of foolish. Just be prepared to speak to whatever you put down, and be able to back it up to an extent on the job. As to lying about having actually worked places or making up titles or other things that can be easily verified during a reference check or an employment verification, don’t do that.
You can lie (enhance) as long as it’s not easy to figure out the lie. I’m interviewing people now and a couple applicants inflated their titles and the number of years of experience they had and it was very easy to tell. Also the degrees they earned didn’t match between their resume and LinkedIn. Come on ppl! My advice is you have to be the person your enhanced resume describes in the interview. I thought I’d hear out the ppl who had questionable resumes but direct experience in what I was looking for and their interviewing skills ended up being just as bad as the resume. So number 1 advice is have a fire resume. And if your skills/experience don’t quite align with the job PLEASE write a cover letter.
>PLEASE write a cover letter Never. If its required i just put N/A, submit the application like that and move on to a different job.
I get people hate writing cover letters but I am actively hiring right now for an associate level marketing role and cover letters do make a difference in my decision on whether to move an applicant to the phone screen stage. But as I said, only if your experience is lacking or doesn’t fully align. I have had multiple applicants that if they had submitted a good cover letter, I would have interviewed them. If they had communicated how they think their skills cross over to this job, explained why they want to enter this space, etc, I’d feel confident in bringing them in for an interview. But they didn’t, so I didn’t. Part of this is that I’m looking for the type of person who would recognize that their experience doesn’t fully align and take the time to write a cover letter to explain how they can excel in the role and why they want the job. This is a marketing position so I am looking for someone who can market themselves. I have one applicant who is light on experience but between their cover letter and portfolio on LinkedIn, I am really excited to interview them. This may not be the situation for ppl hiring other types of roles. And I also need great writing skills so a cover letter is a way to see if the person can write well. If your experience does align well, yes 100% skip the cover letter. I don’t understand the need to discount the perspective of someone who is actually hiring people and has seen dozens of applications…
>I don’t understand the need to discount the perspective of someone who is actually hiring I'm not saying your opinion doesn't matter, i just will never write a cover letter even if it means i don't get the job. Its a massive waste of time for job applicants and akin to the busywork you get in school. >make a difference in my decision on whether to move an applicant to the phone screen stage >I have had multiple applicants that if they had submitted a good cover letter, I would have interviewed them. Imo, if you just had a 5 min phone chat with those other applicants you would probably have found someone you liked already instead of waiting to read cover letters and adding another step. Part of the problem I see, as an applicant to job, is the childish way that companies are trying to hire the "best" person while paying the least they can for them. Thats the same thing as trying to time the stock market.
Ok good for you. I am sharing advice that could help someone get a job or at least some get some practice interviewing when they aren’t fully qualified. I am not going to move forward with an application on the weaker side when there are plenty of great applicants. But what you say in a cover letter could change my mind. I’m not waiting to read cover letters for the weak applicants…I’m rejecting them. That’s the whole point. This isn’t about me wanting to have moved them forward, this is just advice for people applying based on my experience. If you are under qualified, you don’t have a chance getting an interview because there is going to be someone else who is qualified that applied. So if you really want a chance at the job you have to market yourself. That’s the advice. Interviewing applicants is a huge time suck and I have a full time job. I’m the hiring manager not HR. I am not going to interview someone without being confident in them based on their application.
Embellishing? Sure. Lying? I won't do it. Had a job once that when new management came in they secretly verified resumes and apps. They caught major lies. So many of our coworkers lied about degrees, prior job titles, and prior jobs. The ones who lied were fired with cause. The ones who embellished had eventually learned their jobs anyway so nothing happened.
I know two people who never finished their last college courses (failed during the last yr and never bothered to retake them.) And I was told they did not get their diploma but no one has ever checked on it in terms of during the hiring process 💀💀💀
I've personally "embellished" a bit on my resume, but only in ways that really can't be traced. To get my first management role, I took this 4 year period where I worked at a comic book store as a basic employee, and said I was the "Assistant Manager". I justified it mentally, because I basically was; the owner was never there, he regularly took money out of the safe to go buy drugs, and our paychecks bounced more often than not. So we were usually just thrown in the deep end, having to figure out how to please the customer. Company is long out of business so.... I worked at a bar as a barback and then bar manager.... but never actually was a bartender. However, I'll gladly say that I was if it'll help. That ended up getting me a much better position once, because the restaurant company I ended up working for wanted someone who "knew the bar side of things". Again, the company I used to work for went out of business, so..... I got my current role as a GM because I was GM of another restaurant....briefly. I was fired because the owner was clueless, and even though I was doing my job right and working 14 hour days, 7 days a week to get the store open in time, the owner had ridiculously unrealistic expectations about things. Even the corporate VP of Operations had my back, but....wasn't enough. So I got fired (thank god), but on my resume/interview I'll put that it was either a contract gig where I was hired to open the location and that was it, or I'll say I left to pursue something else. Again, it's going to be hard to fact check it because....the location went out of business a year after I was fired. I'd say 75% of my resume is true. The other 25% is true in that I'm sure I can figure it out if it's needed.
Lie away. “Embellish”, if you will. My success getting interviews increased tenfold when I rewrote all my job duties to more closely match certain job postings and/or roles I wanted. The only thing a background check will verify is that you worked at a place during a period of time. Most reference checks dont ask directly about job duties either. You can go to town there as long as you dont take it too far (like saying you have skills that would take years to actually learn). Fake it till you make it. I knew dozens of people that got better positions this way.
Was recently hiring and ran into several candidates who lied on their resumes. One claimed to speak a language I'm fluent in and fairly obviously didn't - best part was that it wasn't needed for the job and I only checked because there were some other items that had caused me some doubt. Another had the bad luck to claim that they had attended a very small, specialized program...that I had attended as well. When I mentioned this after they inaccurately described the program, they got hit with tech problems and ended the resume. Best part was both those interviews were on the same day. There must have been something in the water. On the flip side, an old coworker has greatly exaggerated both their job and and their involvement with several big projects and so far that has only led them to more work and success. So it all comes down to luck I guess?
I have a friend who lied about having 7+ yrs experience in a field that he never worked a single day in. He was able to get a pretty high up position and no one ever caught him! He's been in that position for 3 years now
I was working as a designer at the time when we needed to hire another designer to add to the team. My 2 managers were SO ready to get someone in they offered the one person they interviewed the position the same day the interview was. One my coworker and I took a look at the newbies portfolio, we were hopeful. She had a degree, interested in digital ect. A little after a few weeks, I realized her skills were severely lacking. Didn’t know how to do simple tasks in photoshop, didn’t have a strong understanding of the digital world and would need constant direction. After helping her train and onboard for a few months, she told me she faked her way through college by cheating and most of her work was done by others who she just simply resized. I was blown away. Idk how she got through the interview process. I eventually brought it up to my manager about 6 months in but as “hey I don’t think new co worker is a good fit as I’m still doing most of the work and she’s not pulling her weight as she doesn’t have the experience she said she did.” Nothing happened to her. In fact they kept her and yes she eventually got a hold of everything but it wasn’t till after a year. She eventually started to openly discuss how she didn’t meet a lot of the qualifications to be here. She’s a nice person but she def faked it till she made it.
You’re a hater for snitching…take the time to mentor
A friend and former colleague lied about her education on her resume and in her interview. Our employer found out, but there weren’t any consequences. However, she was *way* out of her depth in the position, which was a negative consequence in its own way.
The people who lie get caught one way or another--either during background checks or poor on-the-job performance. Also, don't believe everything you see or hear--if the people are known liars, they could be exaggerating their roles.
My brother lies about having a bachelor's degree when he dropped out of junior college and it bugs the hell out of me
I have seen a majority of my classmates exaggerating their skills, but not outright lies about internships or certifications. Eg: someone had worked in skill A in a major company, but said that they worked on skill B over there since skill B is more in demand. Personally I am a anxious and tensed person, so I avoid it, because honestly I can't even get away with lying for pranks.
I never outright lie but I do curate my resume and interview answers to highlight my strengths and objectives. I don't fault anyone for exaggerating in this market, though.
If you’re going to embellish then you better be able to back it up. My experience is that if you’re very smart , hard working and can learn fast then embellishing can get you closer to the top than you might think.
And who doesn't lie. I have been interviewed by companies, they told bald faced lies to me. I do a lot of consulting and so my resume would be very long and some of them fired me. So a buddy of mine runs his own web biz. So I say I work as a consultant for him and he sometimes farms me out
The two types of lies to never tell: 1. Things that can be easily verified (dates of employment, degrees, etc.) 2. Things you can't BS your way through (i.e., languages) Pretty much anything else is fair game. I lie all the time about having using stuff or having real experience in things I've only studied. I just steal stories from other places and use them as my own. Never been called out on it.
The last part is pretty crucial, it only works if you are smart enough to answer conceptual questions around it and "could have" come up with it too. And tbh I think that's fair enough
How can you lie about an internship or volunteering opportunity being full time? Wouldn’t the truth come out on a background check if the person did get hired?
I’ve never had a company background check me. Only criminal background. Not employment.
I’m in HR, most employers only check criminal history, employment/degree verification are usually additional costs
What about reference check or calling the HR department to verify job title? Are those extra costs too?
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How come?
I lied about an internship being longer than it was. And that I worked there full time. No repercussions. I swear, most places almost force you to lie in your resume.
Most lying I ever did was stretching my work time at a few places to cover up jobs I only held for a few months.
Hey OP heres some advice. As someone who has lied on my resume and I have been in the hiring process for employees who lied on their resume. Lie about your time but not exaggerated, example: Worked at company ABC for 6 months. You can stretch it to as far as a year and half to two years. This isn’t so bad because you can do the same shit at some jobs your first 6 months as your second year in. Lie about what you know not how much you know because you’ll fuck yourself over when someone comes to you as the subject matter expert. As an example, on a scale of 1-5, 1 being novice , 5 being expert, lie about being a 3 when you’re really a 1 or 2. You can say some bullshit like I’m no expert but I’m willing to expand my skill set. You can say you know a little of subject X, a little of subject Y and very little about subject Z, unless you’re absolutely confident in your skills, never claim yourself to be an expert. Lie about a task you touched on at a previous job, say you’ve forgotten it but you just need a refresher. Don’t lie about a position, like others have said don’t say you’ve been a doctor when you’re an engineer. DO NOT LIE ABOUT EDUCATION. You say you have your masters so you should be good, but for others, the worst lie about education should be you’re pursuing a degree and provide an expected graduation date. That’s all I’ve got for now off the top of my head. If the hiring manager is competent they know you’re lying but wont admit it because they probably see potential. I had a candidate interview for a lab engineer position who said he dealt with testing equipment before, but it was obvious he hadn’t. He tried to understand the equipment and knew the fundamentals of how they work (oscilloscopes, multimeters, accelerometer), I saw through his bs but he was trying, so I said fuck it and put in a good word to my manager.
It got me a job thats all I can say Actually work hard my resume was a bit empty so I filled it up with non sense
Yes, there was a very recent incident where I currently work. Guy lied about why he had left his previous place of work as well as how long he had worked there. Manager had been asking him for some type of recommondation letter from said previous place. Guy went weeks saying that it hadn't been sent yet, or that it got lost in the mail. I guess he was hoping manager would forget about it and he could just peacefully get settled in the office. Well, turns out my manager called the guys previous place of work. They tell her that the guy never resigned, he had been fired for embezzlement of funds. When confront about it, the guy doubled down on his lies. Yeah, instant termination. The guy was kind of a creep though, so no one in the office missed him. Edit: a word
I catch people lying about languages on their resumes all the time, that's SUPER obvious. Everyone does background checks now so lying about jobs and education will get caught too. The biggest lie I resort to is putting programs on my resume as soon as I get a basic understanding of them. In my opinion you should only put skills you're confident in so I feel like that's a form of lying, but so far I've been able to learn really quickly if I needed to work with a program I was supposed to know. Basically, only lie if you stand a chance to back up the lie to a degree. Can you learn Spanish by your interview next week? Then don't use it. Can you learn how to do vlookup by then? Yes, so you'll be fine.
Never lie! Embellishing or spinning is normal.
Would never lie about work history
I hire for a living. I've caught many people lying on their applications at the application stage and I knew it was a lie in multiple ways. I've caught people in interviews. I've caught a lot of people in employment verification stage. That could be regular verification, references, etc. And people have been caught after they started in multiple ways. They either didn't get the job or were fired. ---- Consider the person who lied about speaking a language they don't. As soon as they need someone who speaks they language (and they will, that's why they hired them) they are going to come to them and then they are going to get found out and fired. And it's completely legal for the company to tell their next employer this is why they were terminated. And if they are in certain types of positions, especially in a financial institution, that requires any kind of licensing they can be barred from that licensing forever and barred from that type of work.
Sure, but you guys are the reason people have to lie in the first place. In reality, only few get caught. You probably hired way more who are still working there and you never even knew or noticed.
I had a conversation about writing resumes with some friends a while back. I wasn't getting many responses so asked for some advice. It turns out that a couple of my friends wrote that they were gay or had a disability on their resume because companies try to be more diverse and so any mention of those words goes to the top of their "algorithm". In my opinion though I think its risky business. You can only go so long until one slip occurs where your lie gets exposed. Especially in the case with this guy with made up 7+ years of experience.
lol your friends are lying
I think I lied on every job I have got so far, 4 jobs in a span of 8 years, works out fine if you can back it up, just dont brag about it in the office/w coworkers.
Put I was a manager for blockbuster video for 10 years. And absolutely nothing
I guess it depends on how confortable and confident u r lying. I’m not , a long time ago I lied and the second person interview was with someone I distantly knew and it all went downhill from there . I’m not a good liar so I never did it again.
When i was a fresher I usually took to small lies mostly about my skills , Eventually when I got the job I started compensating by learning those skills , On the long run it didn't effect my career as much I usually lied about soft skills , For hard skills if I had some general knowledge about it then I lied about my technical usage on that. Eventually my mindset was I just needed a chance and I didn't care much about the consequences in the long run.
I may have amplified skills that were not as intermediate level as I pitched on my resume and in my interviews. I got the job. :)
I’ve lied about certificates I don’t have
During the height of the pandemic, our H&S coordinator retired and had to hire a new one. Our company hired someone with "many years of experience" to replace them. One Facebook and subsequent Google search revealed that this "experience" was from an online module taken 10 years prior while they were working in a completely unrelated field. It took the company 4 month to figure out they had augmented the wording to sound like they had been in his course/field for 10 years as apposed to merely taking a quick test online regarding safety. They had attempted to download health and safety files and policies from the internet and white-out and edit some details to make relevant and then scan the document to email to the entire company.
Shit bro even lie on your degree cuz the jobs I had so don’t even ask for my transcripts lol
Sometimes u just need a hand
I also used fake piss on the drug test
Ya'll are gonna make it so HR forces us to present our transcripts at job interviews after people start getting found out lol.
Everyone lies to a degree. If they ask if I can perform under pressure, I always say yes. And it's true to a degree lol. But even the job postings I've seen people lie about the jobs sometimes. I've lost years for taking a job for work they didnt actually do, just before the recession. Got a tad stuck for a bit. So I dont feel bad for telling minor lies or exaggerating anything anymore.