Have You Ever Lied To Get A Job?
🤔 Johnson Kee
Customer Success Team Manager | I ❤️ CX | 👷🏽 9+Yrs Construction Tech & ☁️ Cloud SaaS | 📈 4+Yrs Scaling Start Ups
Myer, one of the big retail chains in Australia, has come under fire this week for firing a "star recruit". This person was hired and fired just days apart when, upon doing a reference check, it was revealed that he was not honest about his experience. Turns out that he never was hired at Zara (which he claimed to be). He was a fraud. Myer is now doing a thorough review of their hiring processes to figure out just how this weasel slithered his way through the stringent checking mechanisms of the hiring firm and made it all the way through.
It brings to mind one of the key questions when it comes to looking for work: have you ever lied to get a job? Now, everyone would like to think that they're pristine and honest about their work history, but you can't tell me that while in an interview, in the heat of the moment, you never just slightly twisted a fact into a half-truth. It happens all the time. It's only an issue when it leads to more serious ramifications that could impact on the reputation of the company.
From doing a quick search online, it seems like these are the three most common lies:
#1: Time At A Previous Company
This seems to be popular. I mean, if you've been at a company for 22 months, you might as well round up, right? Plus I don't know if you've noticed with LinkedIn, but if counts the month that you started with a company inclusive. This can add an extra month to your working time, even if you started at the end of a month.
This happens when people are trying to apply for a position at a company that wants "x years experience", which can be a stupid hurdle and they might bluff the time spent there, especially if they know that the contact for that role can't be chased up (or would be willing to lie for them).
#2: "I've Had Experience Doing This"
"Experience" can be something that's really hard to quantify, particularly for certain skills. For example, if you've got "experience" with Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop, then you'd better have some portfolio evidence showing that. Having said that, who's to say that you couldn't even fudge that and find something online that's a bit better than what you can actually do?
What about being a developer or coder? There's such a wide array of languages that are changing all the time that it's impossible to keep up on a regular basis. Having worked with developers, I know how troublesome it is to keep up to date. Still, quantifying experience can be difficult, especially for the untrained eye.
#3: "I've Done These Things"
This last one is probably the one that takes the cake with regards to creative liberty. Doing extracurricular things that look good on paper and make you sound like an upstanding citizen, a leader in training or someone who has an active social life is going to be nigh impossible to prove, unless the hiring manager makes an effort to check. Of course, you know the chances of them doing that are slim.
That's why you can embellish your life experiences. Taken a holiday to Vietnam? Hey, why not say that you spent a month volunteering to build bridges that would help locals cross dangerous rivers that swelled during the wet season? Who's going to know, anyway?
Don't get me wrong. I'm not condoning any of this. I'd recommend getting the real experience, putting in the hard yards and feeling a greater sense of accomplishment from it than faking it. The sense of pride or passion for the cause will show, which is something that potential employers can sense and see.
Johnson Kee is a direct-response copywriter and digital marketing strategist based in Melbourne, Australia.
Retired but busier than ever.
9yI don't lie on my CV - but after 35 years of contracting I can't remember even which year I did some tasks or performed some roles......
Sales at Shenzhen Voopoo technology co.,ltd
9ywhy does someone lie to get a job? Because "l always knew what the right path was. Without exception, l knew, but l never took it.You know why ? lt was too damn hard. "
Founder - RAJJYWOOD / IT Expert / Fiction Author / Financial Adviser
9yEverything has it's value if it's comparative part is available to see where it stands. For example, a 'lie' is not a lie if it's comparative part is not good enough to be more opposite to it i.e. truth. I agree with @ Mr. Ken Peters view.
@ Johnson Kee...thanks for a great read...I will answer your question with a scenario. We all know and understand that we are currently faced with a very competitive and 'shrinking' job market...not that we are running out of jobs as there's so many available and advertised daily, it's just that we are running out of jobs that actually mean a lot to us either because of the social-economic prestige attached to it, or because everyone else is applying for the same job. The fact is that not everyone is keen to take up a labouring job that pays a weekly wage that is just enough to make ends meet until the next pay...sadly, not many will apply to take up lower scale paying jobs...everyone will compete for the limited jobs at the mid/upper pay scale...and I think that is a huge problem now, especially in Australia...where we are churning out thousands of university graduates and not enough technical/trades people...thus 457 visas (but that's another different topic). My point is, we created this competitive job environment (mid/upper paying) without much thought on the lower scale paying job environment, where employers are not too concerned whether you lied to get the job...as long as you fulfil what is required of you and give back to the company what they need...surely we do not expect everyone to tell the truth when applying for a sought-after position, as much as we'd love for them to be truthful during the interview, we must also at the same time be aware that we could give the position to someone who was not truthful...if during the probationary period we identify some discrepancies, than we can act accordingly...either accept our hiring/recruiting mistake and coach/mentor or terminate and re-advertise (and hope to not repeat the same recruiting mistake). Emmanuel Kant provided us with a very significant challenge pertaining to lying...if you were hiding Jews in your house, would you lie to the SS/Gestapo when they come knocking on your door, and save the Jews, or tell them the truth and know in your heart that they would be killed...the connection with this discussion is that with a competitive job market and the lure of a decent wage/salary to make ends meet and live a decent comfortable life, we must expect that not all job applicants will be honest, as they too would love to also 'save' for theirs and their children's futures...knowing that if they had been honest with certain interview questions would have resulted in them not getting the job, and not progressing as how they would have hoped for. To conclude, I'd have to say that it is a huge gamble, on behalf of both the applicant and interviewer...however, mistakes are common and sometimes they can turn out for the better to both the applicant and the company...Yes we should not condone dishonesty but if it ends up a success and an asset than we can all move on, but if it becomes a dud or like the Myer case where the lying applicant was terminated almost immediately, than we need to be very vigilant when hiring/recruiting...but at the end of the day, we cannot control what other people tell us...we can only control what we hear and receive.
I help Real Estate Teams and Mortgage Companies make more money.
9yWhen I die, people will say many things about me, some negative I'm sure, but I hope that no one can rightfully call me a liar! Little lies come from little liars. Lies win some battles, but honesty wins wars. While I would say that I'd rather tell the truth and fail, I can almost always tell the truth and win! The most admirable people can achieve goodness and greatness at the same time.