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Lying about jail and a reference from a husband: 65% of employers receive falsified CVs

Some of these lies are doozies.

TWO-THIRDS OF EMPLOYERS say that they have been sent CVs that contain lies.

According to a new survey by recruitment firm Cpl says that many employers still believe that women undersell themselves and will accept less money.

Two thirds of hiring managers in the IT industry find women undersell themselves. The survey also found that a candidate can lose themselves a job in less than 5 minutes with over 80 per cent of hiring managers admitting to forming opinions and making decisions within 5 minutes of meeting.

However, it is lies that make interviewers most wary of candidates, with some admitting they make interviewees squirm.

Some of the best lies picked out by the survey include:

  • A break in a candidate CV to ‘return to the home country’ turned out to be an 8-month spell in prison for fraud
  • A registered nurse interviewed for a nursing job on behalf of her unqualified twin sister
  • A candidate claimed to have had full responsibility for accounts and revenue at a company, but when presented with a basic return, didn’t recognise what it was
  • One candidate had a glowing reference from her former employer but disguised that the referee was her husband by using her maiden name
  • A candidate claimed to be a manager in a company without realising that the interviewer was actually MD of that company at the time.
  • At interview, a candidate advised that he had given a false name on his CV and then refused to give his real name; he was escorted from the building

Peter Cosgrove of Cpl says that liars don’t research their lies.
“Some candidates do not understand that lying about their skills and experience is not a good idea. Landing a job you cannot do results in a highly stressful situation which will only end badly

“Candidates also fail to research their lies, underestimating the intelligence and experience of their interviewers,” he said.

Read: There are 147,000 underemployed people in Ireland ready to work more hours

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31 Comments
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    Mute Swamp_Donkey
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    Apr 14th 2014, 9:39 AM

    The employers should take a look at job descriptions.. some big porky pies going on there too…

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    Mute Shane Barry
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    Apr 14th 2014, 10:00 AM

    Some door to door sales jobs, advertised 450-600 per week, ends up being all commission.

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    Mute VinHeffer89
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    Apr 14th 2014, 10:09 AM

    The day I do door-to-door dales is the day Satan will invest in a pair of ice-skates.

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    Mute VinHeffer89
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    Apr 14th 2014, 10:10 AM

    *dales=sales, obviously. Ugh, Mondays.

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    Mute The Truth Hurts
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    Apr 14th 2014, 9:22 AM

    All this is rich coming from the pariahs in the recruitment game (to include their near cousins in HR). Nothing but snake oil men.

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    Mute Inntalitarian
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    Apr 14th 2014, 11:01 AM

    This is rich coming from recruitment people, some of the slimiest characters in business.

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    Mute Ryan Carroll
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    Apr 14th 2014, 10:12 AM

    You expect us to lie and punish us for telling the truth.

    Barred from welfare for the crime of being a student I had exactly one days food left in my fridge, no daddy’s money was available for this student. I wondered why I wasn’t getting noticed, u need to stand out everyone told me…so in frustration I came to one application.

    It was one of those STUPID questionares hr people think are savvy and clever but are just f***king pointless. One of the questions was “what made you choose our company”. Having studied economics and well aware of the state of jobs market..for a second I froze in frustration reading this question and then bust out in a fit of hysterical, mad laughter laced w/tears.
    Were they f****king serious? Its Ireland in the late 2000s I applied because it was a job and it was there! They must know this I thought? Or do they think their company is getting so many applications because it’s a beautiful and unique snowflake????
    You could ask that seriously in boom times not now! Was it just a filter question? It must b I thought..but which way? Do they want me to lie to them? Is it a test to see who lies the best? No…they must want the handful who are str8 w/them. So in summary I said ” well obviously I applied because of the job but I bring the same work ethic and customer service ethos to any job…” Not 10min after I hit send the reject email came. You want lies and obedient drones not outside the box thinkers and people who tell truth to power.
    Admit it

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    Mute Donny Duck
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    Apr 14th 2014, 12:20 PM

    Don’t feel bad about it. You could have given them any answer you like and you would probably be rejected anyway. It’s all internal bureaucracy to make some internal useless person look good.

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    Mute Tricia G
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    Apr 14th 2014, 10:26 AM

    “Peter Cosgrove of Cpl says that liars don’t research their lies.”

    I think what Peter meant to say was those that don’t research their lies get caught out. Those that do, get hired ;)

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    Mute Mike O Neill
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    Apr 14th 2014, 9:53 AM

    Ann Heraty of CPL has an interesting background. Former non executive director of Anglo, also on the audit committee.

    http://m.longfordleader.ie/news/local-news/quinns-plan-to-serve-papers-on-longford-businesswoman-ann-heraty-1-5563339

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    Mute Floodzie
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    Apr 15th 2014, 7:31 AM

    Ouch! Good find!!

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    Mute Mary Kavanagh
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    Apr 14th 2014, 10:04 AM

    Wouldn’t be keen on being nursed by someone’s unqualified twin sister. Some fairly creative lying going on there. Just think of the lies that aren’t found out!

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    Mute Donny Duck
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    Apr 14th 2014, 1:03 PM

    Dunno. If she looks anything like the one in Candy Strippers 2, it wouldn’t be so bad. :)

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    Mute Dave Byrne
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    Apr 14th 2014, 10:26 AM

    The above company in the article advertised a job some years ago in an industry that I work in, The job description was all over the place they did not use industry standard job specs regarding the qualification & experience needed.
    Most agencies are cowboys who over the year’s have brought in zero hour contracts with no premium for working nights bank holidays etc.

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    Mute The Truth Hurts
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    Apr 14th 2014, 10:36 AM

    You’re giving cowboys a bad name there…

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    Mute Donny Duck
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    Apr 14th 2014, 12:27 PM

    Most recruiters are a bunch of useless plonkers with no clue of the jobs they’re actually advertising. I’m in IT and I regularly get cold calls from them for jobs that don’t even match my qualifications but that somebody told them to call me for anyway. This when I’m happily employed in a company I have no plans to leave anytime soon.

    If you don’t have at least a basic understanding of IT, what the f**k are you doing recruiting for it? Do you know that Java and Javascript are not the same thing? That ASP is not a version of PHP or Ruby? If not, you have no business recruiting for it. Period.

    Then there’s the bait and switch they use all the time. Advertise a really awesome job even after it’s been filled. Then, once they got you, they try to coax you into some “similar” job which in reality is inferior and not really the right fit. Yes, I’ve had that experience from 2 different recruiters already and sorry, I don’t like being lied to. I will NEVER EVER use a recruiter again.

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    Mute Dave Byrne
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    Apr 14th 2014, 12:44 PM

    It’s what’s known as C.V harvesting make up fictional jobs and have people apply, So if a job ever comes their way they would have you on file, Also if every job on these websites are actually real full time jobs the unemployment rate would be a lot lower.

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    Mute Donny Duck
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    Apr 14th 2014, 1:02 PM

    If you go to sites like recruitireland.com and read the job descriptions, you’ll realize it’s the same job advertised 200 times by different recruiters. Not only that, it’s the same job advertised by each employee in each agency. Each employee is essentially his/her own company and must bring in as much revenue as possible to the agency and will lie and cheat any way to do so.

    Useless plonkers the lot of them.

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    Mute Don Juan
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    Apr 14th 2014, 9:25 AM

    Facebook is where I get all I need to know. A cv is just a piece of paper.

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    Mute Ryan Carroll
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    Apr 14th 2014, 9:37 AM

    Don, I find that comment profoundly disturbing. Apart from education there’s v little info relevant to a recruiter on Facebook. I find employers who look there creepy, weird and if I found out a prospective employer was looking there I’d run a mile from them and warn everyone else to do the same. Facebook is a warped picture of a person.
    I don’t know what an employer would hope to learn on it.

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    Mute Don Juan
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    Apr 14th 2014, 9:54 AM

    Do you really?
    Do you really mind people blatantly lying on their cv, providing photoshopped college certs, providing false references, (usually older siblings), lying about possible past dismissals?

    I think it’s unfair to do this and it prevents honest qualified people from actually getting the job.

    Social media is in the public domain, and is a good indicator of the person.
    By the way, I don’t enjoy doing it. In fact, I dread the thoughts of wasting an hour doing it. I think you’ll find most employers check out social media.

    If I hire an incompetent, unqualified liar, the hoops I have to jump through to dismiss the person are not worth the hassle.

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    Mute VinHeffer89
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    Apr 14th 2014, 10:12 AM

    And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why knowledge of privacy setting on social media is so crucial… You don’t know who’s creeping your page and for what reason.

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    Mute Ryan Carroll
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    Apr 14th 2014, 10:23 AM

    Don as I say in the other post, employers are as guilty in The Lying Game as the employee in many respects.
    They go on talking about how they want outside the box thinkers and people who tell truth to power who get in their face and tell them when they’re wrong you don’t want any of that in reality they just say those things so their company doesn’t sound like they’re just another drone in the machine and they just an empty suit.
    There are smart and savvy ways an employer can check if a prospective employee is telling the truth.
    I would venture to say that if somebody is lying on her cv about the employment details or education they are not going to be stupid enough to have the public part of their facebook contradict that CV.

    Let’s take college education. So you want to be sure someone says they studied economics actually studied economics (just using my own self exe). Find someone you know who studied it or hell ring a university lectur, ask them what kind of kings somebody who studied that subject should know.
    I know managers that can tell just by talking to someone on their education subject if they really studied it.

    My fear w/Facebook is employers stereotyping someone based on their profile info “oh this guy looks like hell b hung over every Monday not picking him” Trust me a Facebook profiles a terrible way of gauging someone’s character you can get the absolute wrong impression of someone from it, I see people pigeon holed and stereotyped on it all the time.

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    Mute Ryan Carroll
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    Apr 14th 2014, 10:36 AM

    Indeed Vin, a mistake I made myself, not just for employers but crazys on the net. When some people on this site were losing an argument to me one day, frustrated in their inability to actually counter my argument they went on my fb page lookin for mud to throw and concluded…it was a fake profile and i wasn’t really me..in hysterical meanderings they spurred out their logic for thinking this which was needless to say…wrong. ..tho it was flattering in a strange way that I was so hard to believe :p
    I’ve friend who’s shirt less club pics made him look like club head out 7/ nights a week when I first added him having just met him. He’s actually someone who despises clubs and doesn’t drink anymore. A friend browsing my friend list declared one mate a “douchebag jock” based on a grand total of 3 photos, one facial expression and his school..
    That’s kinda snap judgements that worry me not verifying someone’s education n where they worked.
    You say public domain so many people are unaware of their privacy settings all the fact that Facebook randomly rotate them so that a lot of stuff is open that you don’t want to be open. People over share and don’t know how risky it is to do so.

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    Mute VinHeffer89
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    Apr 14th 2014, 10:40 AM

    Completely agree with you Ryan; it works both ways. Employers lie as often as prospective employees do. I especially agree with your assertion regarding Facebook profile pictures, etc. What a person does in their private life does not necessarily imply that it will impact their personal life. Likewise, one’s political views and opinions may be contrary to the employer’s. If an employer wants to hire someone and requests a CV, then the CV should be enough information for the employer to make a decision as to whether they’ll hire the person or not. Still though, keep those profiles private, folks.

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    Mute VinHeffer89
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    Apr 14th 2014, 10:50 AM

    I get the same as regards the fake page thing dude. My FB page is banned from this site as I’ve espoused some views contrary to the Journal’s on certain aspects (Denis O’ Brien and his hugely detrimental effect on Irish society, for one thing). Couldn’t care less if people use that argument, “faceless troll”, etc, just because they can’t counter an argument. Every other news site on the internet with a comments section has more synonyms than actual FB or Twitter profiles anyway so I don’t get what the big deal is. Total strawman argument.

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    Mute Donny Duck
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    Apr 14th 2014, 6:01 PM

    My Facebook page is private. Only my close friends ever see it. I have removed anyone and everyone I don’t make contact with on a daily basis. My advice to anyone: have 2 Facebook pages. One private for friends and family and one public for your professional profile and limit who can post on that. Don’t post anything irrelevant or that you wouldn’t want a prospective employer to see. If you want another page for anything else, use a fake profile and don’t post your picture up there.

    My Linkedin page only exists when I’m looking for work. When I don’t need it, I take it down. I have enough job connections that I don’t need to advertise myself. All it is is a magnet for recruiters. I have never been contacted for a real job through Linkedin. Linkedin doesn’t have a privacy option. You have to take your whole page down when you don’t want to be seen.

    I don’t use any other social media with my real name.

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    Mute Will Too
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    Apr 14th 2014, 9:58 AM

    You would be better off looking at the persons star chart than most of the CV’s I’ve seen !

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    Mute Kate Murphy
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    Apr 14th 2014, 10:56 AM

    Moral of the story? Lie better.

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    Mute Donny Duck
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    Apr 14th 2014, 12:30 PM

    Moral of the story: don’t use recruiters.

    If there are plenty of jobs out there you can find a job yourself and don’t need a recruiter.

    If there are no jobs out there there’s nothing the recruiter can do for you anyway.

    Either way they’re a total waste of time and might actually cause damage to your reputation.

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    Mute Kristen Mcnamara
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    Apr 15th 2014, 3:18 PM

    I never have lied on mine what’s the point if ur good u dnt need to lie That article just told.me.that the recruiting agencies are saying that people do not lie good enough and this is how to do it. All we need.to so is watch our government. Their the experts

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