Resume tricks used by employees. 4 perfect ways to not be fooled

Resume tricks used by employees – do you know them? Do you know how many candidates lie about education, dates of employment, and salary? Numbers are being exaggerated, titles become inflated. It is estimated that almost 40% of people use tricks to conceal facts in their resumes. Read the article and find out more about tricky tricks used by applicants to fool human resource specialists.

Resume tricks used by employees – table of contents:

1. Resume tricks used by employees
2. Gaps in employment
3. Better CV than reality
4. Uncompleted studies and partly completed courses
5. Taking credit for the merits of other people
6. Show yourself from the best side – graphic measures
7. Resume tricks – summary

Resume tricks used by employees

Perfect CVs that indicate that a candidate possesses all required skills are rare – every hiring manager knows about it. More frequent is the situation in which the candidate has the abilities and predisposition to take up the given post, but doesn’t meet certain criteria. Unfortunately during the recruitment process, one can meet with individuals that want to get the job so much that they will try to fool HR specialists. What kind of resume tricks can you expect?

Gaps in employment

One of the frequent practices is hiding gaps in employment in the CV, as well as shortening or extending the employment periods. Why do candidates decide to do such a thing? Usually to meet the requirements of the offer and show their rich experience, as well as to hide the information that they were unemployed for some time or that there were frequent changes of employers.

Particularly important is the last from the enlisted reasons – some are afraid that shorter periods of employment will be seen as a sign of lack of loyalty, problems with adjustment, or that the employee will not be able to stay long in the given position.

In many cases, there are some grounds for such understanding – the employee may express unloyalty, but in most situations, the assessment due to frequent changes of employment is incorrect and unfair.

It is worth verifying the reasons for lies in CV related to the employment issues – especially since it is particularly easy to check which periods of employment are correct. The HR manager or hiring specialist can always ask the candidate to provide employment certificates or other valid documents that prove the periods of doubtful periods of employment.

Better CV than reality

Overstatement of skills is undoubtedly a tempting option for every person who wants to get good potions that offer a high salary and provides prospects for development. Although it is very easy to verify the fact of having the skills during the recruitment process, still candidates decide to exaggerate their abilities in their resumes.

The practice of enlisting many different skills with inflating their level of proficiency is frequent. Candidates lie about their level of advancement in Excel or proficiency in languages. Some of the CVs present all required skills that are in the job advert although the candidate does not possess the skills outlined in the document.

The lies concern both soft skills and hard skills, generally any element in the CV can be false. Anybody can claim that their time management is excellent, that they perform great under pressure, and has amazing public speaking skills. During the interview, the hiring manager can ask for specific examples, where those abilities were used to verify the fact of possessing all doubtful skills.

Uncompleted studies and partly completed courses

The frequent practice among the employee is the exhibition of a variety of professional courses, which proves the broad competencies of the candidate. The list of courses implies that all of those forms were finalized. Usually, the candidates are not eager to share the information that for some reason they were unable to gain the certificate or the higher education diploma (master’s work has not been submitted and defended). A recruiter has a right to see the diplomas, certificates, and other relevant documents during the interview.

Taking credit for the merits of other people

Another easy way to extend the catalog of tasks performed on the given position and skill is the practice of taking credit for the merits of other people. Candidates decide to show that they have the competencies required by enlisting the job duties of their colleagues or managers. They take the chance because they hope that during the recruitment process nobody will be able to ask them about the whole job experience.

This type of lie can be easily verified, the conversation with the previous employers is all that has to be done. The detailed competency-based interview is equally useful. Duties such as team management, decision making, project management, and business networking look great in the CV, therefore it is so tempting to add them – the HR team has to find ways to validate the truth concerning those assertions.

Show yourself from the best side – graphic measures

The candidates for the job try to hide their deficiencies by an expansion of certain elements of their CV. To cover up the lack of practical experience they write a lot about their education, qualifications, and other less important elements. Such procedures are very common, hence it is worth analyzing the CV thoroughly.

Resume tricks – summary

If you deal with recruitment and one of your tasks is CV analysis, remember that the best way to protect yourself from tricky resume tricks is to read the documents carefully, ask many detailed questions, check the supplementary documents during the interview, and talk to the previous employers of the candidate. Prepare yourself before the meeting with the candidate and be sure that following the advice given in the text you will be able to separate the wheat from the chaff and choose the best person for the job offer.

Now you know more about resume tricks used by applicants. Read also: How to stop quiet quitting in your company? 4 incredible methods for an HR department.

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