According to Peter Harris from Career Beacon, the unemployment rate in Canada is at an all-time low - Canada kicked off 2019 with a historically low 5.6 percent unemployment rate!



If that is the case, why are job seekers still lying on their resumes? A study conducted by CareerBuilder indicated that 75% of employers have caught a lie on a resume.

Monster’s resume expert, Kim Isaacs, stated that fear may be the main reason for this. Job seekers are afraid of not being good enough, not measuring up to their peers, and not getting called in for interviews; as such, they may do whatever it takes to gain a competitive edge.

Common Lies on Resumes

Our experienced background check team found the following to be the most common lies on resumes:

Job Titles: Candidates often enhance their job titles to match the job they are applying for. In doing so, they hope to appear more experienced and ultimately boost their chances of getting hired.

Solution: Job titles can be confirmed or corrected by conducting an employment verification with the candidate’s previous HR contact.

Dates of Employment: Candidates routinely extend their dates of employment to fill in any gaps of unemployment on their resume or make it seem as if they were more committed to a role than they actually were.

Solution: Once again, an employment verification can determine if a candidate really worked for as long as they say they did. Our team specifically researches and contacts those who have access to employee records to verify employment dates.

Skills and Experience: Many candidates embellish the responsibilities they had in previous jobs in order to appear more skilled or experienced than they actually are or to bypass ATS filters and get their resumes directly into the hands of hiring managers. Common things to look out for in this category include:

• Claiming to be fluent in a foreign language.
• Appearing to be an expert in a program when they have really only used it a handful of times.
• Inflating numbers when addressing achievements (i.e. increasing sales by 30% instead of 15%).

Solution: Skills assessments or proficiency tests are commonly used to ensure that candidates can actually do what they said they could. For instance, many companies conduct verbal and/or written proficiency tests to ensure that applicants are fully bilingual.

Education: Perhaps the most common lie on resumes pertain to education details. We have come across candidates who have made up degrees or claimed to have graduated from college or university. Others have claimed to have professional designations or have certain credentials when it has actually been expired for years.

Solution: Our team takes the time to authenticate the information provided by personally contacting schools or professionally accredited institutions. Doing so can confirm whether or not a candidate has rightfully achieved what they claimed.

Reason for Leaving: Oftentimes, candidates are vague or outright lie about their reason for leaving in an attempt to bury any red flags.

Solution: Conducting an employment verification with the candidate’s previous HR department or direct supervisor is the easiest way to verify why they left the company. If they left for negative reasons, verifying this information will provide you with a clearer picture of the situation.

Some resume lies may be obvious at first glance and some may not. Figuring out the truth is as simple as completing a background check on your candidates. Taking the time to conduct a background check on candidates can ensure you start off your potential working relationship on the right foot.