If a resume comes across your desk that seems to good to be true, that could actually be the case. A 2014 CareerBuilder survey revealed that 58% of hiring managers have caught a lie on a resume — and 33% reported seeing a post-recession increase in elaborations.
Lies were caught in seven different categories, including — embellished skill set (57%), embellished responsibilities (55%), dates of employment (42%), job title (34%), academic degree (33%), companies worked for (26%) and accolades/awards (18%).
4 Savvy Ways to Spot Resume Lies
Need a little help catching a liar in the act? Uncover the truth by putting these four tips to work:
Do a Social Media Search
Sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have made it much easier to catch a liar in the act. Most people have a profile on several social media platforms, so you can cross-check them to see if the details add up. For example, if a person lists an Ivy League grad school on their resume, but it’s not mentioned on their otherwise up-to-date LinkedIn profile, they probably didn’t actually go there.
Give a Skills Test
The best way to see if a person has the skills they’re touting is to test them on it. Make part of your interview process an in-office test that candidates must pass to make it to the next round. When they’re sitting right in front of you, they can’t phone a friend or consult Google for assistance.
Bring Them in for Multiple Interviews
It definitely takes more time to interview people two or three times for a position, but the extra effort is well worth it. When you meet someone for the first time, it can be difficult to distinguish the telling signs of a liar — avoiding direct eye contact, rambling, shuffling their feet, etc. — from standard nervousness. Not only should they calm down after meeting you a couple of times, this also gives you the chance to bring other colleagues into the interview, who can offer their opinion.
Conduct a Background Check
Background checks can be pricey, but this added expense is worth the cost of helping you avoid hiring a liar. Different companies offer a variety of services, including everything from employment verification to drug testing, so you can decide exactly how deep you want to dig.
Searching for the perfect engineering candidate?
Contact Premium Staffing, Inc. We can help you engineer a more successful search, because we’re engineers ourselves and we speak your language.