The number of people lying on CVs has increased by 30% since
last year and the number of people lying increased in every job
sector surveyed except stockbrokers.
The survey was conducted by the Shell Technology and Enterprise
Programme for employee screening firm Powerchex.
Job applicants most commonly lie about the dates on which they
held certain jobs. The next two most popular lies are related to
qualifications and directorships held.
The survey found that while these three categories of lie
increased in their frequency, all the other kinds of lie told –
about bankruptcy, job titles, salaries, reasons for leaving past
jobs and criminal records – decreased in popularity.
The survey discovered that the university which graduates
attended had a major effect on their likelihood to lie in CVs. It
found that those who went to the top-ranked universities were least
likely to lie.
It discovered that 43% of those who attended universities ranked
outside the top 100 in the UK had a major lie in their job
application, whereas just 14% of those from the top 20 universities
had applications with a lie in them.
“What this survey says is that graduates from lesser-known
universities may feel they need to alter their background to
compete”, says Powerchex managing director Alexandra Kelly. “There
appears to be a trend that the lower ranked the university, the
higher the likelihood of discrepancies on a CV,” she added.
The survey also found that arts and humanities graduates were
more likely to lie to get financial services jobs than maths and
finance graduates.
Ben Doherty, an employment specialist at Pinsent Masons, the law
firm behind OUT-LAW.COM, said that dishonesty on CVs can have
ramifications even years after the offending document is
written.
"There have been cases where people have been dismissed, even
from extremely senior jobs, for lying on CVs years earlier," he
said. "An employer can reasonably argue that it affects the trust
and confidence between employer and employee. If they have lied
about their CV, what else have the lied about?"
Doherty also stressed, though, that a CV is just one of the many
ways in which employers can now find out about employees.
"The CV is really just a foot in the door now," he said.
"Employers will then see what someone is like at interview and then
they can even do further checking on things like MySpace or
Facebook."
