Regardless of how many times you may have been told the opposite, telling lies at any point during the recruitment process is a terrible idea. Even if you aren’t rumbled immediately, chances are the untruths you told will at some point or another come back to haunt you in a very big way. Suffice to say, falling into the trap of assuming that ‘everybody’ lies to a certain extent while trying to score a job is inadvisable – not least because the vast majority of employers are painfully aware of every single common fib told.
So according to the experts at www.activerecruit.co.uk, if you’d given so much as a moment’s thought to telling any of the following fibs during the recruitment process, the simple advice is not to bother:
- First of all, if you think it’s a good idea to in any way extend the dates of any given employment in your history to make you look more experienced, you’re on a slippery slope. Avoid doing that at all costs!
- In a similar vein, one of the very worst things any job seeker can do is to lie about the reasons behind or explanations for any given gaps in their employment history as the truth will inevitably come out sooner or later. Instead, try to find any positive bits about your employment gaps to show your employers you didn’t really just lie in bed all day.
- A quick one but an important one, never for one minute think you’ll get away with lying about the extent of standard of your education. If found out, you will be most likely shown the door.
- Another extremely common lie told during the recruitment process which never fails to prove regrettable for those concerned is that of inflating a previous salary. If and when they check it up, they’ll simply know you cannot and should not be trusted, so simply forget about it.
- When it comes to technical skills, recruiters often have to take the word of their applicants at face value as they are unable to put them to the test. Nevertheless, lie about your technical expertise and even if you do get the job, chances are you’ll be fired and disgraced just as soon as it becomes apparent you haven’t got a clue what you’re doing.
- Now more than ever, it can be extremely advantageous for any job seeker to be able to speak a second language competently. Nevertheless, if you’d essentially struggle to order so much as a baguette in the centre of Paris, it’s probably not a good idea to tell your perspective employer that you speak fluent French.
- When it comes to those often awkward questions about personal weaknesses or past challenges, you can rest assured that your perspective employers are familiar with every fabricated and textbook copied response in the book…honesty is the best policy in this case and will only do you favours.
- Something else to avoid is giving your perspective employer the impression that you have absolutely nothing to do whatsoever for the next two years with regard to personal plans and time off. To lie about important and prearranged engagements only to spring them upon your employers further down the line never goes down well.
- If you were fired from your job, you not only need to tell them that this is the case but also why it was the case. Do you really think they are going to take any chances and just accept your word for it? Of course not, you can rest assured they’ll be carrying out as many checks as necessary, so instead of lying about it, try to present the situation in a positive light.
- Last but not least, recruiters across the board are also wise to the extremely common practice of lying about long-term future goals. They will pick up upon it pretty much instantly if you have no intention of being with the company long-term, just as they will know inherently if you’re the kind of person who will be expecting a promotion after three months. So rather than telling them what you think they want to hear, try telling them the truth…you might be surprised just how well it goes down.