Have you ever been passed over for a job despite the fact you KNEW you could’ve done the job in a stellar fashion? Are you frustrated because you never got a college degree yet do the EXACT same job as someone who does and you get paid thousands of dollars less? Have you been hampered from moving up in the professional world because you lacked the “right” job title despite the fact your employment experience was exactly what the job description listed? If this describes you then perhaps it’s time you wrote a fake resume.
As an executive recruiter (headhunter) for many years I saw first hand how those that played by the "rules" more often then not lost the best jobs to those that lied on their resumes. I'm not talking about a bit of embellishment, but outright lies such as mentioning degrees never earned or positions never held. According to the Society of Human Resource Managers over 53% of all job applicants lie to some extent on their resumes. Over 70% of all college students said they would lie to get a job. The higher the salary, the more often candidates lie. The web site www.fakeresume.com was started as a way of teaching people how and why they are unknowingling losing jobs to those that lie.
Why write a fake resume? There are many legitimate reasons for writing a fake resume. Perhaps your current job title didn't properly convey all the duties or responsibilities that you had. Maybe you were unemployed for a period of time. Everyone knows that doesn't look good on your resume. Did you assist a manager who was incompetent and you made them look good on the job? Better yet, YOU did their job but for whatever reason, perhaps because of nepotism you could never get promoted to their job. Out of frustration you quit but now you CAN’T put that fool’s job title as your own despite the fact that YOU did his/her job! Worse yet due to jealousy or animosity because you quit and now for the first time they HAVE to do their own work they won’t give you a good reference.
The bottom line is if you know you can do the job, then why shouldn't you fluff up your resume a bit? We all know a great deal of people who have held jobs that they were not qualified to have. Yet there they were day in and day out collecting big paychecks while other people corrected their frequent mistakes. Can this be considered lying? Perhaps, but don't you deserve a shot a job you know you can do?
What about your prospective employer’s honesty? How open and honest are they to their employees and future employees? Anyone who’s read the newspaper or watched the evening news has witnessed the lack of integrity that runs rampant in today’s corporate world. In my experience very few employers will fully reveal any unpleasant details affecting the positions they advertise. I had a candidate that lived in New York and I recruited for a startup in California. He and I were both assured that this start up was financially stable and had enough cash flow at the current burn rate to stay in business three years. I personally spoke with the Chief Financial Officer to question him about the long term stability of the client. I wasn’t about to have a person give up their life and move away from family and friends for something that wasn’t reasonably stable. Based on the assurance given me and my candidate by the CFO, he accepted the job, gave up his rent controlled apartment in New York and moved to California. About 12 weeks later he and half of the company were unceremoniously laid off. I couldn’t begin to explain how devastated I was when I learned of this disaster. After all this man gave up his life due in large part because I convinced him to move all the way across the country for the job. He ended up suing the company but I never learned what happened or heard from the man again. After that debacle I never again looked at corporate America in the same manner.
Perhaps your future boss or co-workers are complete bastards. Perhaps they know that the division you’ll be working for will soon be eliminated, or perhaps the entire corporation is in financial trouble and will soon be laying off large numbers of employees. In cases like these, you can bet that the hiring corporation will seldom let issues like fairness and morality get in their way. They need to fill the job and get on with their business. It’s a sad fact that corporations are seldom completely honest when it comes to the information that an applicant needs to make an intelligent decision about the desirability of the position. It seems very hypocritical for a prospective employer to insist on applicants being entirely honest while they regularly conceal relevant job details.
“Hire Right” recently released some interesting statistics that show how rampant resume fraud is in the United States. The company’s numbers show that 80 percent of all resumes are misleading, 20 percent state fraudulent degrees, 30 percent show altered employment dates, 40 percent have inflated salary claims, 30 percent have inaccurate job descriptions, 25 percent list companies that no longer exist, and 27 percent give falsified references.
Some statistics state that if you reviewed 100 resumes, a whopping 75 percent of them would reveal a "fib, fallacy or some outright lie. The question now is, how many jobs did you apply for and lose to someone else that may have been less qualified then you but got the job because they lied?
About the Author:
Derek Johnson is a former Executive Recruiter then launched http://www.FakeResume.com in order to help job seekers of all types from executives to skilled professionals learn how and why they are losing jobs to others that are lying on their resumes and how they can survive in today’s fiercely competitive job market. The Fake Resume Guide is a down and dirty uncensored look at every trick, trip and technique that he's seen people successfully use to lie on their resumes and get the job they want.
Lying on Your Resume Could Be the Best Thing You Could Do For Your Career
