Lying On Your Resume Is Not Good For Your Career
April 19, 2011
Another highly visible executive lied on his resume about his educational credentials.
Unfortunately this is a very common occurrence. Studies show that over 50% of applicants lie about their job and educational history. Resume lies include falsifying academic credentials, padding dates to mask employment gaps, exaggerating job titles, embellishing job responsibilities and achievements, claiming sole responsibility for team efforts and even making up fictitious employers.
A thorough background check will usually detect these lies and save your company precious time, money and embarrassment.
City puts brakes on hiring Smithsonian fleet manager after he flunks background check
(Source: nydailynews.com) New York’s plan to put one person in charge of its 26,000 vehicles sputtered to a halt when he flunked a city background check, sources told the Daily News. Bill Griffiths, the fleet manager at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, had been picked as New York’s first Citywide Chief Fleet Management Officer.
When the Department of Investigation checked his résumé, however, it found he claimed an educational credential he hadn’t really earned, three sources said. The sources would not say what the credential was, but the offer was rescinded for the post - which would have paid up to $185,000 a year.
Read more.
Photo Credit: The CV Inn
Best Employee Screening Articles For August & September 2009
October 1, 2009
In case you missed any of our employee screening articles for August and September, here’s a quick recap of our most popular:
- Recruiters Are Checking You Out On Facebook
- Top 10 Articles On Employee Screening
- The Secret of Successful Hiring
- Truth and Lies On Resumes
- More Background Checks
- Sex Offenders In Ohio
- Florida’s Flawed Background Screening System
- The Pros & Cons of Googling Candidates
Smart, Compliant Hiring Decisions Made Easy
FYI Screening, Inc. is a leading provider of on-demand, easy to use employee screening solutions.
- Subscribe to our blog to stay informed
- Follow on Twitter
- Connect on LinkedIn
Photo credit: net_efekt
Truth and Lies On Resumes
September 3, 2009
Katie Couric reports on Andrea Stanfield, a woman who not only lied on her resume and was making over $100,000, she wrote a book about it, called “Phony! How I Faked My Way Through Life.”
“When we started working on a story about resume fraud and whether more people were lying on their resumes now because the job market is so tight, our biggest challenge was finding someone who would admit he or she lied on their resume. No easy task.
Andrea Stanfield said it’s not like she sat down and formulated a plan to lie. Locked in a battle for custody of her young daughter, she was desperate for a well-paying job but every position said “bachelor’s degree required, bachelor’s degree required,” she repeated during an interview outside her St. Petersburg, Florida home. So the Ohio native added “B.A. Business Administration/Akron University” to her resume when she only had a high school diploma. The college is actually called the University of Akron.
Ultimately, when her boss was accused of embezzling millions from the company and an investigation was likely, she quit because she feared she might get caught and could no longer handle living the lie. Her husband at the time was shocked by the revelation, she says, and their marriage, this her second, quickly came to an end. ”
A simple background check could have prevented all this.
Andrea has plenty of advice for anyone who might consider lying to get a job in the tight labor market: “Don’t do it.”
Read the entire story “Faking Your Resume” here.
Related Posts From FYI Screening:
- 4 Common Lies Told By Job Candidates
- Can You Tell If Your Applicant Is Lying?
- Resume Fraud May Increase As The Economy Worsens
Never, Never Lie On Your Resume
July 20, 2009
Secretsofthejobhunt.com has a good article titled ” Should I lie on my résumé?” by Ginger Korljan.
“Today I learned about a new website which for a fee, will fabricate job history, degrees, and references for a résumé. Their justification? “A résumé is not a legal document.” They even provide an answering service if a potential employer wants to follow up with a phone call. I was astonished that any company would be so brazen to attempt this outright illegal activity, and even more astonished that people are actually buying it!
Read the rest of the article here.
Related Posts From FYI Screening:
- 4 Common Lies Told By Job Candidates
- Can You Tell If Your Applicant Is Lying?
- Resume Fraud May Increase As The Economy Worsens
Want to learn more about employee background screening?
Photo credit: Loren Javier
Employee Screening Articles For April 2009
May 4, 2009
In case you missed any of our employee screening articles for April, here’s a quick recap of our most popular:
- E-Verify Supported By Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano
- 5 Improvements Coming To E-Verify
- Job Applicants Are More Likely To Lie As The Recession Grows
- E-Verify for Federal Contractors Delayed Again
- A Growing Trend - Data Security and Protection
- When Not To Do A Background Check
- Enforcement Of The New “Red Flags Rule” Delayed Again
Smart, Compliant Hiring Decisions Made Easy
FYI Screening, Inc. offers a complete portfolio of employee screening services that will help you work smarter while providing the industry’s fastest turnaround and the highest quality results.
This will allow your company to focus on what really matters:
Hiring and Retaining The Best Employees Possible
Subscribe to our blog to stay current on all employee screening issues.
Job Applicants Are More Likely To Lie As The Recession Grows
April 7, 2009
Enterprises thinking about cutting budgets for investigations and employee screening should think again. National and international studies recently show that job applicants at all position levels are more likely to lie as the recession grows.
- Read the article over at securitymagazine.com.
- Read more about resume fraud.
- Subscribe to our blog to stay current with employee screening news, articles and advice.
Photo credit: kevindooley
Employee Screening Articles For March 2009
April 2, 2009
In case you missed any of our employee screening articles for March, here’s a quick recap of our most popular:
- How To Use LinkedIn For Job Hunting or Networking
- How To Stay On Top of E-Verify
- Resume Fraud A Growing Concern
- 5 Rules of Twittequette
- Diploma Mills: Degrees of Deception
- Form I-9 and E-Verify News
Smart, Compliant Hiring Decisions Made Easy
FYI Screening, Inc. offers a complete portfolio of employee screening services that will help you work smarter while providing the industry’s fastest turnaround and the highest quality results.
This will allow your company to focus on what really matters: hiring and retaining the best employees possible.
- Sign-Up for a quick demo to see how your company can get the fastest, most accurate and cost effective employee screening results in the industry.
Photo Credit: gadl
Diploma Mills: Degrees of Deception
March 24, 2009
Are you ever tempted by an email or an ad claiming you can “earn a college degree based…on life experience”? Don’t be, say attorneys for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), America’s consumer protection agency. Chances are good that the ad is for a “diploma mill,” a company that offers “degrees” or certificates for a flat fee, requires little course work, if any, and awards degrees based solely on life experience.
Most employers and educational institutions consider it lying if you claim academic credentials that you didn’t earn through actual course work. Federal officials say it’s risky behavior: If you use a so-called “degree” from a diploma mill to apply for a job or promotion, you risk not getting hired, getting fired, and in some cases, prosecution.
Diploma mills may claim to be “accredited.” Colleges and universities accredited by legitimate organizations undergo a rigorous review of the quality of their educational programs. Although many diploma mills claim to be “accredited,” their accreditation is from a bogus, but official-sounding agency that they created. You can use the Internet to check if a school is accredited by a legitimate organization at the database of accredited academic institutions posted by the U.S. Department of Education or at the Council for Higher Education Accreditation database. (There are a few legitimate institutions that have not pursued accreditation.)
Look out for sound-alikes. Some diploma mills take on names that are very similar to well-known colleges or universities; a “dot edu” Web address is no guarantee of legitimacy, either. Keep in mind that some diploma mills use credible-sounding foreign names. Researching the legitimacy of a foreign school can be a challenge, but is clearly worth the time. If you’re having a tough time checking out a particular school, call the registrar of a local college or university and ask if it would accept transfer credits from the school you are considering.
So how can you tell if the institution you’re thinking about is legitimate? Here are some tell-tale signs of a diploma mill:
- No Studies, No Exams — Get a Degree for Your Experience. Diploma mills grant degrees for “work or life experience” alone. Accredited colleges may give a few credits for specific experience pertinent to a degree program, but not an entire degree.
- No Attendance. Legitimate colleges or universities, including online schools, require substantial course work.
- Flat Fee. Many diploma mills charge on a per-degree basis. Legitimate colleges charge by the credit, course, or semester, not a flat fee for an entire degree.
- No Waiting. Operations that guarantee a degree in a few days, weeks, or even months aren’t legitimate. If an ad promises that you can earn a degree very quickly, it’s probably a diploma mill.
- Click Here To Order Now! Some diploma mills push themselves through aggressive sales tactics. Accredited colleges don’t use spam or high-pressure telemarketing to market themselves. Some diploma mills also advertise in newspapers, magazines, and on the Web.
- Advertising through spam or pop-ups. If the school caught your attention through an unsolicited email or pop-up ad, it may be a diploma mill. Legitimate institutions, including distance learning programs, won’t advertise through spam or pop-ups.
Source: Federal Trade Commission
Next Step
- Read more on diploma mills.
- Contact us for an online demo and see why smart companies are using FYI to streamline their employee screening process. FYI Screening, Inc. is a leading global provider of employee screening solutions to corporations, government agencies, healthcare systems and educational institutions.
Smart, Compliant Hiring Decisions Made Easy
Resume Fraud A Growing Concern
March 12, 2009
Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement consulting firm, released their monthly update on CEO departures. They report that CEO departures in February 2009 were at the lowest monthly turnover since December 2004. They also report that resume fraud is a growing concern.
“Resume fraud is likely to become more prevalent in the downturn, even among high-level executives. With increased competition for available positions, there is more pressure to find and keep a position. With this pressure comes the temptation to embellish one’s education or work record. More of these embellishments are likely to be uncovered, however, as companies become more selective and more diligent in the vetting process.”
I say it’s about time companies are more selective with their C-Level Executives. Believe it or not, many companies screen their janitors more thoroughly than their executives. For more on executive screening go here.
- Read more about resume fraud.
- Subscribe to our blog stay current with employee screening news, articles and advice.
Photo Credit: jm3
Employee Screening Articles For January 2009
February 2, 2009
In case you missed any of our employee screening articles for January, here’s a quick recap of our most popular:
Subscribe to our blog so you don’t miss any helpful employee screening tips and articles like these.
Photo Credit: foto3116
