$100,000 a year and you still lie in your CV?

In the online recruitment industry we're often thrown the line that "People lie when they apply online", or "how can you do psychometric online when you don't know who is filling in the answers".

Well yes it's true, people do extend the truth when applying for jobs, but this has nothing to do with the Internet or online application forms. Shock horror, people that lie can do so by fax, by post, by email and during interviews also.

Anyhow, I have just been discussing this with a Recruiter who pointed out some recent research they had read. Of all applications made by the financial services jobseekers, a worrying 38% of male applicants have at least one major false item on their CV. This is paper CV's and online CV's so the statistic doesn't refer to the method through which the CV were received, just that they lie in them.

Interestingly having a high income bracket doesn't prevent jobseekers from falsifying their career details. The income group with the largest number of discrepancies were earning between $105,000 to $115,000 per annum.

These stats are scary for the Middle East where most major employers and recruitment agencies don't often take up references.

The usual suspects for false info in a CV are; the employment dates, the job title, or levels of responsibility and success people experienced in their previous roles.

Would love to hear from any Recruiters who have caught out any interesting cheats, or any of you who are adopting thorough reference checking in your firms.

Ben