7 dumbest resume lies
October 2, 2008 by Shane BorerPosted in: "Would you want this person in Finance?", Bad investments, Special report
Some applicants embellish a little on already-strong work experience. Others take a more blatant approach to getting hired.
A future Finance hire might stretch employment dates a little or inflate their former job titles, but these resume lies compiled by CareerBuilder aren’t so easily excused. Here are our favorites, along with the excuses probably made immediately after they were caught:
- Claimed to be a member of the Kennedy family — “You know, the Kennedys of Eastern New Brunswick.”
- Listed “CEO” as previous job title, instead of hourly employee — “I meant Common Entry-Level Operator — was that not clear?”
- Included a photograph of someone else — “I thought it’d really help you see me in the position.”
- Claimed to be a member of Mensa — “Yeah, I got a 1600 on the entrance exam and everything.”
- Listed extensive military experience — from before the applicant was born — “I’ve always been a go-getter, even in the womb.”
- Included samples of work that were actually authored by the interviewer — “They say plagiarism is the best form of flattery.”
- Claimed to be a former professional baseball player — “If this Finance job isn’t going to work out, can I still play on your company softball team?”
Have you ever caught — or committed — a bold-faced lie on a resume? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.
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Tags: CareerBuilder, Excuses, Resume lies, Work experience
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:21 pm
never
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:34 pm
I used to have my own resume/employment business. I once had a customer come in telling me he wanted a job as a purchasing/inventory specialist. Here’s the kicker – he did NOT want an entry-level position, yet he had NO experience, was NOT working at the time, and he wanted me to lie about it all and write an entirely made up resume for him! Employers – BEWARE! People actually do this stuff!
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Some years ago, I had an applicant who claimed extensive experience and a college degree. The problem was that he was too young for the amount of experience claimed, his resume was full of spelling and grammatical errors and he didn’t use industry terms correctly. He was rejected outright but he claimed to have graduated from my alma mater and I wanted to protect the reputation of the school. So, I called up the college admissions office to check on his claim and found out that he not only was not a graduate, he had attended only two quarters and was on academic probation. They college staff said they would counsel the lad.
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Stated they graduated from the University of Michigan when they graduated from one of the U of M’s satelite schools.
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:45 pm
I received a resume from an employment agency. The applicant turned out to be someone I had let go the year before. On the resume under last position, it listed Senior Manager/Director. Since this was my position, I had to laugh. After having the person work for me, I already knew the resume I used for hiring her was overstated. To see that she was trying to work herself into an even higher position was extremely amusing.
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:10 pm
A few years ago I received a resume that looked quite good, in fact at second look I was sure it was embellished. I looked for the individuals last assignment and said “Hmmm….”. The last entry was a five-year position at Michigan State Industries. I was aware, but most wouldn’t necessarily know that Michigan State Industries is at Southern Michigan Prison where inmates make license plates and road signs. Really quite clever of the applicant, and I must admit he didn’t lie.
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Had a temp to hire situation where the person filled out our employment application.
Under High School he listed Xeter Academy.
Having grown up in NJ, I knew it should be Exeter.
So I checked with Exeter and NYU (his alledged alma mater),
Nothing………
October 6th, 2008 at 11:16 am
In my years of interviewing people for entry level or managerial positions, I only did one thing to do to flash out their lies, give them a test.
About ten years ago I put an ad for an full charge bookkeeper for a non profit organization with a potential of becoming a controller and one really submitted an impressive resume with extensive financial background. The person just came to Los Angeles from the East, and I decided not to bother doing a background check but instead gave the person a simple accounting test, basically for bookkeepers. The person did not even answer any of the twenty simple questions.
Resume might not contain dumb indicators but test will.
October 6th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
To Pete Rifakes – I don’t consider that a lie. I am a graduate of the Calumet Campus of Purdue University. It is a part of the Purdue system, and the education I received there I feel is quite comparable to what I would have received at the West Lafayette campus. My diploma states Purdue University; it does not distinguish a particular campus. I am sure, considering the caliber of school University of Michigan is, that the satelite campuses of are held to the same high standards as the main campus.
October 6th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
I agree with Katherine, Pete. PSU has several satellite campuses and the diplomas do not distinguish from which campus it was earned. The only exclusion would be stating a specific school (ie a business school) that is offered at one specific campus when they attended another.
October 7th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
I don’t believe that we have had too many embellishers. We did have one full time applicant that would need someone to pick her up and take her home everyday. She lived @20 miles from our place of business.
November 28th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
I too graduated from a satellite school and my diploma does not state a certain campus. Also everyone that I know that takes classes via satellite and at a conventional bricks and mortar college all say the online atmosphere is more difficult. Don’t knock the satellite enviroment, they have grown to be very competitive and dilligent in offering quality education. Just about every conventional college, university etc, does offer the online platform and the quality of education is just as good. They must do this in order not to damage the “brand” name.
February 24th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
I completely disagree; not listing that you attended a satellite school does constitute lying on a resume. If a potential hiring manager does an educational check, they might check with the registrar’s office at the flagship school and it might show up that you never attended the university. This causes a major red flag. As a University of Wisconsin-Madison alumni, I will argue that there are staggering differences between the strengths of the individual programs at each of the UW-system schools as well as their online courses.