Have you ever lied on your CV?

carolannie

I would never lie about a qualification. But what about stretching the time in a job?
Years ago, I work in bar work and catering, for a year, then on and off while I brought up my children, but on a CV, it looks like I have huge gaps (from being a stay at home mum)
Would it be wrong to put down i worked longer? To fill the gaps

Coopdivi

I've never lied about qualifications. I haven't got many and I always feel I'd soon be found out. I can understand somebody bumping up their university degree though.

Don't forget that Iain (Duncan) Smith was extremely economical with the truth on his CV. It doesn't appear to have affected his career though.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2002/12_december/19/newsnight_ids_cv.shtml

I've put entirely fictitious jobs on my CV in order to fill gaps. I know some of you will say ooh employers can check up on that, you'll get into trouble etc. but if you say you were self employed and give a mate's name and phone number for a reference they'll be none the wiser.

It's very, very important to memorise your untruths. Don't get caught out like I did when the interviewer asked about a job I'd had as a gardener. I told him I'd only done it for a few weeks. He said "It says six months on your CV". There was a stunned silence from me. Needless to say I didn't get the job.

wideboy09

I am pretty tempted to do this as i am trying to get work offshore but they are all asking for previous experience. i am considering just saying i was on for a few trips doing labouring or cleaning. my mate got in by lying on his cv, he said he was an actual rigger but thats more risky in my mind.

also maybe putting my referance down as an offshore company that no longer exists so they wont be able to contact them?

TrickyWicky

With respect to the last two posts, it would be interesting to hear from anyone who works in HR as to how they deal with these situations.

purple.sarah

I didn't do as well at Maths GCSE as I could have, I got a D. I saw a great job advertised in the field I was interested in, requiring Maths A-C. I admit I was tempted to lie but I didn't do it because I knew it would be unethical and impractical. The ethics are obvious so let's focus on the practicalities. The employer could want to see a certificate, some fakes are expensive while others aren't worth the paper they're printed on and a lot of the places that supply fakes are scams because who would admit to being taken in? Even if I got in the door the employer could have found out later leading to embarrassment and dismissal from a job I would by then be attached to and relying on to pay the bills. And forget about a good reference.

So instead of lying I realised this was an area of my CV that needed some work and arranged to study Maths so I can retake the GCSE or equivalent and legitimately put a higher grade on my CV to improve my future job opportunities. It is difficult looking for a job but lying won't work and there are other ways to improve your CV.

nightingalesgarden

TrickyWicky wrote: »

With respect to the last two posts, it would be interesting to hear from anyone who works in HR as to how they deal with these situations.

I work in HR and used to work in Financial Services where we insisted in references for 5 years - if there were non-work gaps we asked for evidence of where you were/what you were doing e.g. copies of plane tickets to prove a round the world trip, stamps in a passport, some proof of unemployment. All references were checked and gaps queried. If the company no longer existed we asked for P60's or P45's.

We also asked for copies of qualifications.

Lots of people failed the reference process.

The sad thing is that if they had been honest at interview and/or on their CV we would have offered. The reason we declined was that the trust had gone - before they'd even started....

We had lots of people who put travelling to fill gaps in a CV - and who then went on to answer lots of questions about their travels in interview who turned out to have spent 2 weeks in Greece and 6 months on their mums sofa!

But a lot of companies are not as vigilant...

LALON1983

Everything on my Cv is based on truth, but maybe a little overexaggarted. For example, in an admin temp job I booked a cab for a manager once. On my CV I state I made extentive travel arrangements for senior managers across the UK... etc for most duties..

In another temp role, a 'senior admin job title' I can be very creative with my responsibilities under this role on my Cv depending on the role I'm applying for.


I would never lie about fake employment or fake qualifications.

TadleyBaggie

I applied for a job through a recruitment agency and got asked to "embelish" my CV before it was submitted to the employer. I refused and I didn't get an interview. Months later the the same agency contacted me again as the position hadn't been filled, again I refused to modify my CV, again I didn't get an interview.

Ironically a few months later different role came through for the same employer and I got an interview. During it one of the interviewers remarked it was a shame I hadn't applied for the "other" job as my CV was perfect for it. I told him I had but got rejected for some reason...