The Metiss Group's Blog

Before he was famous, Leonardo da Vinci in 1482, at the age of 30, wrote out a letter listing his capabilities and sent it off to the Duke of Milan in hopes of getting a job.  He is credited with submitting the first resume (see copy here).

In a recent Harris Poll on resumes conducted on behalf of CareerBuilder, 2,188 HR pros and hiring managers were asked to cite common exaggerations (i.e. lies) on resumes.  Unlike Da Vinci’s letter, most resumes today are reported to contain exaggerations or be flat out wrong.  Here are the common resume falsehoods and percentages reported:

• Skills — 57%
• Responsibilities — 55%
• Employment dates — 42%
• Job titles — 34%
• Academic degrees — 33%
• Past companies worked for — 26%
• Accomplishments and awards — 18%

When conducting interviews and reference checks, be sure to validate resume facts.  Challenge candidates on the resume’s veracity and have little tolerance for inaccuracies or embellishments.

Empower your hiring managers to dig deep into a candidate’s resume, and you’ll make more successful hires.

Source: HRMorning.com

This entry was posted on August 25, 2014 at 2:02 am and is filed under Selection. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.