Survey Reveals 75% of People Lie on Their Resume

With technology so readily available that can fact check what we say, I was shocked to find out that a new survey by Careerbuilder reveals that 75% of employers have caught a job applicant lying on their resume. It really doesn't take much to do a background check on almost anyone and most of the information an employer needs is all right there. Yet for most people that doesn't matter and they lie on their resume anyway.

It doesn't shock me to find out that less than 40% of hiring managers spend less than a minute looking at a resume. In previous jobs when I have been looking for a qualified applicant I didn't take much time to look over the resume, just due to so many other tasks that need to be accomplished. In fact 23% of hiring managers spend less than 30 seconds looking at a resume. Which means, you really have to do something to make yourself stand out from all the other resumes in the stack.

There are seven mistakes that are very common when putting together your resume so watch out for these items.

1. Typos or bad grammer
2. Unprofessional email address
3. Resume without quantifiable results
4. Resume with long paragraphs of text
5. Resume is generic, not customized to the company.
6. Resume is more than two pages
7. No cover letter with the resume

And most importantly, don't lie on your resume. It doesn't matter if 3/4 people are lying on their resume you don't want to do it. Just think if you were that hiring manager. Would you hire someone who lies to you in one of the first instances you ever get to meet them? Probably not.