Resume and Written Enhancements Curtailing Careers — Dave’s Diary

Misrepresentations in Montana have hurt the hopes of national Democrats to hold onto the U.S. Senate this fall. Back in March Montana Senator Max Baucus received an ambassadorship to China and his Montana Governor appointed replacement was – surprise – Montana Lt Governor John Walsh.  However Walsh recently announced he’s stepping down after just six months on the job following a New York Times report that in 2007 Walsh plagiarized large sections of the final paper he completed to earn his master’s degree at the prestigious Army War College in Carlisle, Pa.

It seems more and more, people at all stations in life are being caught in lies on paper which ironically are more and more easily detected with today’s technology.

A new study says close to 60 percent of company hiring managers have found lies in the resumes they've perused, while one-third of employers have noticed an increase in resume "embellishments" in the post-recession job market.

Harris Poll for CareerBuilder questioned nearly 2,200 hiring managers and human resource officials from a wide variety of companies and industries and here are some of the more common lies the survey respondents said job candidates tried to sneak past them:

• Embellished skill set -- 57 percent
• Embellished responsibilities -- 55 percent
• Dates of employment -- 42 percent
• Job title -- 34 percent
• Academic degree -- 33 percent
• Companies worked for -- 26 percent
• Accolades/awards -- 18 percent

Some industries and job sectors also seem to be more prone to having job-seekers lie about their pasts and qualifications. The survey found 73 percent of employers in financial services said they found fabrications on resumes they've examined, followed by 71 percent in leisure and hospitality, 63 percent in information technology, 63 percent in health care (looking at companies with more than 50 employees) and 59 percent in retail.