What are some things slipping through the cracks during interviews? According to U.S. News over a third of all resumes contain lies, and more than half contain exaggerations and partial truths. Those numbers are easily cause for alarm — especially among businesses and institutions who have a lot at stake and cannot risk negative publicity. Large corporations and law firms, for example, need to tread very carefully. Here’s what companies need to know:
The Most Likely Lies
U.S. News reports that job seekers are most likely to tweak dates of employment, exaggerate or tack onto past accomplishments, and embellish past job titles and duties. “We keep being told that working anywhere less than a year looks bad. So rather than fess up to the fact, some people are fudging their timelines,” U.S. News explains. Education is another area where applicants are likely to inflate the details. “[Former MIT Dean] Marilee Jones had been with MIT for 28 years before the university realized that she never received the undergraduate or master’s degrees that she said she got on her resume. In fact, Jones never received any college degrees,” Business Insider reports. Recruiting services, including top legal recruiters, should look out for these lies first.
Modern Lies Are Getting Elaborate
Some companies assume that modern technology makes lies on resumes easy to identify. Unfortunately, that’s just not true. “Some people pay hackers to get into university systems and place them in a graduating class,” professional Charles Wardell III reveals to USA Today. “Those kinds of lies can be rooted out by asking an applicant to name instructors or talk about specific classes,” USA Today adds. The best international legal recruitment agencies know to ask these questions during interviews — and well before companies officially hire candidates.
Technology has not fixed the interviewing and hiring process. Candidates are still lying, and they’re coming up with highly elaborate ways to support those lies. Consider hiring some of the best international legal recruitment agencies to find out whether candidates are truly honest. Learn more about this topic here. More can be found here.