The most common untruths told in CVs relate to time. Three days eleven years ago has been known to translate as eleven years ending three days ago when it comes to listing relevant experience for a job.
Applicants are so eager to look as if they've never had more than the length of a coffee break in between jobs that they will fudge whole blocks of time that in reality might have been taken up with illness, occupations they don't want the world to remember or periods of extended vacation. What we would say, is that sometimes the truth is more attractive than applicants might realise.
Even more common than the deliberate lie is, what Dextra terms, 'the truth lie', These are events or facts which never happened or never existed, but the untruth has been repeated by the teller for so long or so often, that he or she actually believes it.
This is a very popular ploy when referring to qualifications. What CV authors don't often realise is that it is their obsession with the importance of certain facts that causes them to repeat certain lies often enough that they become the truth — in their own minds at least.
In reality, we know that many employers for high-flying jobs are completely unimpressed by a string of good A-levels when compared with the actual experience of the applicant.
Dextra's research shows that it often does no harm to an employee to claim to have interests that he or she does not. No one is ever likely to discover that your stated passion for abseiling involved signing up for an abseiling group in your first week at university and not attending once. But beware of insisting you are a wine connoisseur if you can't tell a cabernet sauvignon from claret.
A light remark at interview could prove you a liar before you get your feet under the desk. There are no hard and fast rules in the field of CYs. The truth is always marketed as the best policy, but truth does come in a range of colours, styles and sizes. It's all a matter of creating an outfit that looks just right for the needs of the potential employer.
Source
The Facilities Business
Postscript
Kate Headley is a director of Manchester based Dextra Executive Search and Selection.
