Have you ever lied on, or otherwise embroidered your CV by a touch of exaggeration?

Not quite on topic but I once interviewed a prospective employee and when I spoke to his referees, both of whom I knew, I found that he was employed and being paid by both companies while saying he was ill. His CV stated that he was no longer employed by either company.

This is an interesting question. I teach a class about this where we consider outright lying and stretching the truth. The stats are amazing globally that people actually think a bit of exaggeration is OK. People have lost a great deal when these things have come to light. It is simply not a good idea to lie about anything. Just be you.

Norah

JaneJudge

I don't think I have hobbies on mine. I could hardly put I like going to nice hotels and eating good food and drinking copious amounts of wine from time to time

I most probably do the opposite Monica. I have lots of lived experience (you all hate that phrase don't you? ) as a carer for someone with an illness and disability (severe) that I could most probably take forward into a career but I have no qualifications in it. I suppose there must be plenty of other examples too

I've many experiences that could be used on a CV. I must be a professional cook, cleaner, dog walker, skier, receipt keeper by now. Maybe not CV worthy!

receipt keeper
Surely you mean accountant Norah! 😁

No, I've never lied on a CV but I worked with someone who had. Not in a small matter, either. It took a long time before she was found out.

The advert currently showing on this page is for CV building

Grannynannywanny 🤣🤣🤣

I’ll admit I did it once decades ago. Not exactly a CV but verbally. I was working 4 days in my nursing job and although I needed extra hours/income I couldn’t fit it around family life as a single parent.

I saw a cleaning job 2hrs 4 days a week in a factory depot and the hours were very flexible. I had a chat on the phone and the factory manager said he didn’t mind at what time of day I fitted it in. I just had to meet the area domestic supervisor at the site for a quick hello and some paper and the job was mine.

She produced a large floor buffing hover type machine and asked if I had previously used one. I really wanted the job and I lied and said yes.

She drove off and left me to do my first shift. I cleaned the staff toilets which consisted of 2 cubicles. Within seconds there was only one cubicle. I lost control of the hover machine and whacked the dividing partition and knocked it down!

The guys in the factory thought it was hilarious and kept my secret. They fixed the partition back in place and the domestic supervisor was none the wiser.

I have never lied in my CV, but I got into the habit of tailoring it to the position I was applying for, as there is no point in including a lot of experience that is irrelevant.

If for example you apply for a job as a secondary school teacher, it is inadvisable to inform the board that you have previously lectured at a university - they will immediately reject you on the grounds that you will be talking over the heads of school pupils.

Likewise having worked as a shop assistent or a typist is irrelevant, whereas the fact that you have supervised a homework cafë is not, or that you are aunt to 15 children of varying ages.

I have never lied on my CV beforehand and this was because I would not want to be disciplined for doing so. Possibly the next addition to Rachel from Accounts CV will probably be that she was a member of the Royal Family between 1998-2012, but in a few years time, she will state it was a spelling mistake and it was in fact the Royle Family sitcom with Sue Johnston, Caroline Aherne and Ricky Tomlinson.

Not about facts (such as jobs I'd held before or qualifications I'd gained) but certainly about experience, just the once. I'd learned enough from my boss to know I could do the job I was applying for, so I ticked the "Experience" box (half the time, I'd been doing the idle madam's job for her in any case, so it was sort-of true).

I exaggerated on mine especially in the 1st few years to hide the rubbish jobs I'd done for a few weeks here and there. There might be a few places where I am economical with the truth especially on things like linked in, which is an open community like Facebook and not a private job application, but I do have the qualifications I claim.
I think to fib on a CV is bad, but on Linked in its the done thing

I once got a job as a silver service waitress having exaggerated my experience thinking that it couldn't be too difficult, could it? I hadn't factored in my dyspraxia and after the first evening the boss suggested that my training had obviously failed me! They kindly let me stay but it wasn't the job for me and I was poached by one of their clientele. He was happy for me to be clumsy as long as I could be sociable with his clientele.

No,I'm a rubbish liar.
I was once interviewed by a panel, including an appointee from the local authority.
Over lunch ( never a relaxing meal on interview day), this person quizzed me about my time at university. Apparently, his sister was in my year and in my classes.
She, it seems, remembered me quite warmly, and was happy to confirm my attendance.
Thank goodness- I didn't recall her at all.

LinkedIn isn't just a cv. It's an opener to much more.
For example, DS1 often gets given a posh hotel suite at £500+ a night thanks to his (truthful) LinkedIn entry, when staying on business.

I never lie. Only last month or so on GN, a sarcastic poster feigned doubt by asking me," Have you actually been a teacher?", when discussing sanctions in school. I thought that was somewhat ironic, and rude! Or have we got to a point where everyone talking about their jobs is under suspicion?

JaneJudge

I don't think I have hobbies on mine. I could hardly put I like going to nice hotels and eating good food and drinking copious amounts of wine from time to time

I most probably do the opposite Monica. I have lots of lived experience (you all hate that phrase don't you? ) as a carer for someone with an illness and disability (severe) that I could most probably take forward into a career but I have no qualifications in it. I suppose there must be plenty of other examples too

It was a questionnaire for undergraduates doing a sandwich course with a year in industry, so often outside interests or experiences can give a wider picture of someone whose work experience will be zero, or close to.

It did not stop this young woman getting the job. She was the best candidate - and she learnt something from it.

Indigo8

A tricky question. I have never claimed to have qualifications or experience I don't have.

I suppose I lied by omission about the job I had that I only stuck for one week. Does that count?

If you apply for a position in the financial services you have to account for every week - to check you have not been in prison

I think LinkedIn is the key to understanding this really. If you read a few profiles you get the gist of how it is done now. I don't think our experience in pre LinkedIn days is relevant.

No. Applying for a first teaching post, we were encouraged to put things about our teaching practice because that was all we had to offer in terms of work experience.
Since at least one reference came from the head of your final practice school, exaggeration wouldn’t help.

No, me neither.
But I became aware in my latter years in education of the “confidence” of youth, often misplaced it would turn out, oh how they knew how to “talk the talk” and I did not enjoy seeing people taken in by what seemed to me exaggerated claims, made presumably on the assumption that by the time anybody found out, it would be too late/difficult to sack them.
Because references had to be shared with those applying fir a job, they were invariably bland and non- contentious.
One of my D’s was a director in a large financial recruitment firm and she said they did not take a lot of notice of written CVs any more, preferring LinkedIn (oops!) but most of all personal recommendation, often a phone call or private email which shed light on what might lie between the lines of a reference.

No. I'm a bad liar who blushes too easily and would have been caught out.

A personnel manager once told me she'd seen an application form where, in the box marked "Sex", the applicant had written "Once", crossed it out and put "Twice". (I suspect the manager was fibbing!)

Short answer No but we were encouraged when we were fighting for our own NHS jobs in yet another reorganisation to 'blow your own trumpet'. So I suppose exaggeration is the name of that game.

I see Reynolds is blaming the error on his ‘team’, as did Reeves, but neither of them can blame anyone else for the words which came out of their mouths - in Reynolds’s case, in the HoC. Jenrick is, rightly, pointing out that it is a criminal offence to claim to be a solicitor if you’re not.

No, never needed to as always more than capable for the job description.

JaneJudge

I don't think I have hobbies on mine. I could hardly put I like going to nice hotels and eating good food and drinking copious amounts of wine from time to time

I most probably do the opposite Monica. I have lots of lived experience (you all hate that phrase don't you? ) as a carer for someone with an illness and disability (severe) that I could most probably take forward into a career but I have no qualifications in it. I suppose there must be plenty of other examples too

I've many experiences that could be used on a CV. I must be a professional cook, cleaner, dog walker, skier, receipt keeper by now. Maybe not CV worthy!

No, never. I’m not that dishonest. I know that things like that have a way of surfacing apart from anything else. Same way that if you say bad things about people behind their back it comes back to bite you! If you are in politics those rules clearly don’t apply,unfortunately.

Indigo8

A tricky question. I have never claimed to have qualifications or experience I don't have.

I suppose I lied by omission about the job I had that I only stuck for one week. Does that count?

Me too!

No, doesn’t count