ThinkingMore CV Lies
More than 50 per cent of CVs submitted for job applications contain inaccuracies, a new survey shows.
Significant lies such as discrepancies in employment and academic dates, fictitious professional qualifications, omitting County Court Judgments and undeclared directorships have all been identified.
In line with earlier surveys conducted by The Risk Advisory Group, the results show that lying on CVs is widespread. In 2007 the number of candidates submitting multiple lies increased, with those in the 36-40 age group being the worst offenders. In this age range 62.9 per cent of CVs screened contained at least one discrepancy. This is an increase of over ten per cent on 2006. The number of cases having three or more discrepancies also increased by nine per cent over the survey results for 2006.
Sal Remtulla, Head of Employee Screening for The Risk Advisory Group, said:
“CV discrepancies are on the increase and becoming more serious. The rise in dishonesty in the 36-40 age group is a testament to the increasingly tough job market, and it is clear the temptation for exaggeration or straightforward lying is escalating.
Many of the discrepancies we uncover are simple errors of omission, but a significant number will be something more serious, such as bankruptcies, criminal convictions or even fraud against previous employers.
We recommend that employers re-evaluate their screening programmes and consider rescreening employees in light of this increasing threat.”
Examples of CV liars:
· A US national who had been living in the UK for several years applied for a position at an investment bank. The candidate did not provide his US Social Security number, so a background check was conducted in the US without one. Results found that the candidate had several hundreds of thousands of US dollars in debts and a judgment filed against him to the value of $US 30,000 for the non-payment of debt.
· A candidate for a large international investment bank had worked in the United States, UK and the Cayman Islands. International credit research revealed that the candidate had omitted large amounts of information about his international past. The candidate had a large negative credit history including judgments, liens, undeclared directorships and even a number of bankruptcy orders issued by the State. The candidate also claimed he was a licensed attorney in the State of California. Our research returned information that he was suspended by the State Bar some years ago for failure to pay registration fees.
· Credit checks conducted on a recruit of an investment bank revealed that the candidate had a County Court Judgment registered against his name for the amount of £2,936 at an undeclared address. He was found to be a director of two companies. The candidate had not declared any adverse credit history or corporate interests in his application form. Academic checks could not confirm the candidate’s solicitor’s final examination and further investigation revealed that a solicitor with the same name was struck off the Roll of Solicitors due to a shortage on a client account of over £650,000 in 1991. The candidate had in fact served a prison sentence for this and had covered this career gap by claiming he had attended university for this period.
· Credit checks conducted on a “just married” candidate for a technology company revealed that the candidate had not declared two addresses where she was found registered on the electoral roll. In particular, the research has located two undeclared County Court Judgments registered against her maiden name, for a total amount of £3,128, at one of the undeclared addresses. The candidate did not mention any adverse credit history in her application form.
· A candidate for a financial services client claimed to have achieved a pass in a BA (Hons) Economics at a London university. We contacted the university where they confirmed that the candidate was not registered for the BA course but had done a HND instead. The candidate had only completed the first year of the course and had not achieved any recognised qualifications.
Top five lies are:
1. Previous positions
2. Employment
3. Academic dates
4. Academic qualifications
5. Undeclared directorshops
Datasheets showing the analysis results are attached.