British Job Applicants Are Lying On Their CVs

More than 7.5 million of Britain's 25.3 million working population have misled their potential employer while applying for a job. This is the key finding from research sponsored by CV Validation.com, the firm that offers a vital pre-employment screening tool for both employers and jobseekers, and conducted by MORI.

Among those who had been untruthful, almost half (47%) had lied about their leisure pursuits, while more than a quarter have misled potential employers about their salary (28%). Other common untruths surround their personal skills and qualities (19%). Indeed, 14% of workers actually state that it is not wrong to exaggerate previous experiences when applying for a job in order to stand out from other applicants. 3% have even lied about a criminal record. All those who lied about their criminal record were male, with the great majority being under 35 years of age. None of them came from the North of England.

But job applicants should take care as employers are becoming increasingly vigilant. Already half of organisations always or often conduct some kind of checks on the background of applicants, most notably contacting referees (83%) or previous employers (75%). 31% contact the relevant educational institutions. One in ten of these organisations already employ the services of a specialist checking firm, with a fifth of managers saying that their organisation would consider employing a company to check CVs. More than half (54%) of managers indicate that their organisations rely on the honesty of applicants or do not have the time or understanding to undertake checks.

Employees were questioned about whether they had lied about: salary, work experience, roles and responsibilities, qualifications, leisure interests and demographics such as their age, driving licence etc. The survey revealed that amongst all workers:

• Almost one third (30%) admit to lying while applying for jobs
• 18% think that it is often necessary to exaggerate on their CV in order to stand out favourably from other applicants
• One in five think that failing to mention jobs/roles that didn't work out when applying for a job isn't lying, it is just not drawing attention to them
• 18% believe that interviewers expect them to exaggerate their experiences on CVs
• Just under a fifth (18%) of workers believe employers don't check up on what is written or said when they apply for a job
• 6% say that if an employer discovered that they had been untruthful to them they would say that they had made a mistake/typing error in their application
• 5% have lied about their education history
• 3% have lied about their qualifications
• 2% have lied about their previous job title

30% of all workers admit to having been untruthful when applying for jobs yet a quarter (24%) of managers think that a maximum of one in ten CVs or application forms contain misinformation. 36% of workers indicate that it is the responsibility of the employer to discover untruthful information mentioned during the application process. Firms need to be more vigilant than ever.

Among managers in organisations who check occasionally or less frequently:

• 19% trust their gut instinct as to whether the candidate is honest
• A third (34%) do not check the background of most applicants because the process is too time consuming. Almost three-in-ten (28%) are either more interested in 'on the job' performance or expect referees to provide an honest assessment of the candidate (28%)

More than a third (36%) of organisations state that untruths and exaggerations cost their firm significant time and money.

Both men and those aged under 34 are most likely to have been untruthful. Over a third of male workers have lied while applying for jobs, compared to a quarter of women. More than four in ten workers aged under 35 have also done so, perhaps feeling that they need to try and differentiate themselves from the crowd before they have a long career history to draw upon.

Technical details

The survey questioned 1,042 workers across all industry sectors, including 345 managers, face-to-face between 19 and 23 July 2001.