More people lie on resumes to land jobs
Danette Spiers
Issue date: 5/6/08 Section: News
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This is happening on a regular basis. Whether it involves what some would call a tiny fib by an applicant or an extreme case of dishonesty, there are people who are willing to take the risk to get a job.
"It's not a new phenomena, but what's disturbing about it is now it seems to be affecting every walk of life," said G. Jay Christensen, former CSUN management professor who has been researching resume fraud since 2006.
Christensen said he has discovered resume fraud is particularly common among federal officials, city officials, sports writers and university officials through his research for Career Directors International.
In the last year, some high profile cases in the news have included Marilee Jones, the former dean of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who lied about her credentials and also a chef from The Food Network, Robert Irvine, who was fired after it was revealed that he lied about his level of experience as a chef.
Kessler International's website indicates that more than 25 percent of resumes have false information, while 80 percent mislead employers in companies that conduct pre-employment screening.
There are a variety of issues that have brought about this problem.
Christensen said that a competitive market is one factor, as well as the slow economy, because people are worried about getting jobs and feel they have to have more of an edge then the next applicant.
The Internet has also made it easier to access examples of good resumes.
Christensen said people list jobs they never held and work they never performed. They can simply cut and paste the information from the Web, Christensen said.
But knowing exactly what is considered fraud is not always easy when people, especially students, are told to make themselves look as attractive as possible on paper.
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