The resume that grew legs then ran through 10 traps

When you are recruiting, one of the first things you see is the resume of a candidate. It is the single biggest representation of what that person says they have done in their professional career – or is it?

During my career, I have reviewed tens of thousands of resumes and there are many interesting stories I can tell. 

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What’s in a Resume

Employers always want the best candidate to fill a job vacancy. Who wouldn’t want skilled talent to join and help grow your business along the way?

We all want to select from as many qualified active and passive candidates from the talent pool. Employers start the interviews to see who fits the job description and person specification and can take the job role. We want to know and gauge our candidates more. However, with only the recruitment process in between the vacancy and job offer, we can only learn so much from an applicant.

In recruitment, among the first things we ask from a candidate is the resume. We aim to get as much information about a talent’s professional career. We trust this CV can give us the big picture of what a potential new employee has done and achieved in the past. However, we have to remain vigilant at all times.

How authentic is the resume you’re reading? 53% of resumes contain falsifications while 29% contain altered employment dates.

The data above tell us that 1 out 2 candidates may have false information on a resume, or that 1 out of 4 job applicants edits the employment dates on his/her curriculum vitae to make it look good. Therefore, the above infographic serves as a warning to employers of “buyer beware.”

Employers: Beware of fake CVs

So, here is a list of the Top 10 things that I look for in a candidate’s resume.

1. Omitting or falsifying past employment
2. Unexplained gaps in dates (or claiming false employment or activities)
3. Falsifying reasons for leaving past employment
4. Pasting in job descriptions rather than stating what they actually did and achieved
5. Claiming false dates or using annualised dates (were they working for 2 years, 2 months or 2 days?)
6. Embellished or falsified qualifications or licences
7. Education that is inflated or falsified
8. Job titles and responsibilities that are inflated or falsified
9. Inflated salary and other benefits
10. Providing irrelevant or fraudulent referees

For more information on resume tips and traps, please contact Neil at 1300Hired.[/read]