Talent is what really sets candidates apart when they go through a selection process for a job. When everything else is equal, it is the interview and the candidates’ competencies that define them and separate the chosen candidate from the other possible ones.
However, an attractive and different CV at least makes the recruiter stop and look at what the candidate offers, instead of letting it slip by like any other. At least those CVs get the chance to be reviewed.
But there is a third group of CVs that catch recruiters’ attention in a different, and wrong, way. The times we live in encourage this, and lead more than one candidate to enter a selection process with the odd lie included in their cover letter and CV.
Want to know the most common ones?
Qualifications
This is one of the most common lies, and one of the easiest to check: just ask for an academic transcript.
It’s done in the belief that, with a few subjects taken or a half-finished degree, a person can enter a selection process and claim their studies are complete, or nearly complete except for some subject they couldn’t finish for some (usually) very original reason.
Things get complicated because people sometimes invent real stories to try to make it believable that they actually completed the studies listed in their academic background.
Computer skills
We all know and master all sorts of software. Especially if it’s interesting and makes the CV look stronger. It gives the impression that we’re up to date with computer programs, and you never know which option might be the one that sets us apart from another candidate.
But… what happens when they ask you a question, sometimes a simple one, about a program you don’t know nearly as well as you make out?
Languages
Another common area for lying. What do we mean by an intermediate or advanced level in a language? “What I know is enough to travel the world, so I consider my level advanced.”
We look as though we know a lot, but in reality our level is basic, which shows above all when the company we’re applying to requires the language and puts us through a short conversation in it. Not to mention that they may run a specific language test as part of the selection process.
Duties performed
Another area where people lie really often. “When I was working at… I did… this and this and this and this and this!” The question that so much activity in the company, and responsibility for so many duties and well-done jobs, brings to mind is: so why didn’t they renew your contract? There are lies for that answer too.
Employee of the month
This is the height of CV lies: making up jobs you’ve held based on what friends who really did work at the company in question have told you.
On other occasions, some candidates have been named employee of the month (once or twice) at a company where they never actually worked.
Sometimes the companies mentioned have since disappeared or closed down, which makes it much harder to find out the truth.
Professional advice: leave fiction to novelists and film or TV screenwriters.
Further reading
Featured image: Jean-Etienne Minh-Duy Poirrier, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr.
