[in Your State]
10 Strangest Résumé Lies

It doesn't take a genius to know that lying on a résumé about being a member of Mensa, the international high-IQ society, is a bad idea. Yet, this is one of the résumé lies that a recent survey uncovered. Can you beat it?

CareerBuilder.com conducted a survey that found 49 percent of hiring managers say they have caught a candidate lying on their résumé. The most common lies hiring managers found involved embellished responsibilities (38 percent), skill set (18 percent), dates of employment (12 percent), and academic degree (10 percent).

However, some candidates took the fibbing to another level. While the candidates probably believed they were including information that would give them a leg up on the competition, you may be left wondering why they bothered.

One survey respondent, for example, said a candidate claimed to be a member of the Kennedy family. Another candidate submitted a résumé with a photo of someone else.


BLR's Hiring the Best is a step-by-step program that tackles the ins and outs of finding and hiring great employees.


Survey respondents reported these other strange résumé lies:

  • Included samples of work, which the interviewer actually did
  • Falsely claimed to be Hispanic
  • Claimed to have been a professional baseball player
  • Listed military experience dating back to before he was born
  • Claimed to be the CEO of a company when the candidate was an hourly employee
  • Claimed to have worked for the hiring manager before but never had
  • Invented a school that did not exist

The survey included 3,169 hiring managers and human resources professionals. CareerBuilder.com also conducted a survey among 8,785 employees. How many admit they have stretched the truth on a résumé? Only 8 percent. Do you think those 8 percent are submitting all of those résumés in which 49 percent of hiring managers have found a lie?

Share your strange but true stories of lies on résumés at http://hr.blr.com/about/strange_submit.cfm. If we get enough good ones, we'll include them in a future column.

Source: CareerBuilder.com


'Mr. Unstable' Becomes Mr. Unemployed

Personal hygiene is important, but taking a bath in the sink at work isn't the best way to go about it. An Ohio Burger King employee is learning that hard lesson after taking a dip in the industrial sink at the restaurant after work.

Timothy Tackett, 25, reportedly posted a video on his Myspace page featuring him enjoying a soapy bath in the sink to celebrate his birthday, WTHI.com reports . Tackett referred to himself only as "Mr. Unstable" in the video and later told reporters he wasn't naked, as some had thought, and said he was wearing a black Speedo. The video has since been taken down, although many sites have stills of the video showing Tackett playing in the soapy sink.

Tackett, who says he was fired after the incident, told reporters he regrets his actions because two other employers were eventually terminated--the one who allegedly filmed the bath and the manager on duty.

While the sink was sanitized after the bath, Burger King Corp. has ordered all utensils and kitchen tools be discarded, and is retraining the staff of the restaurant on health and sanitation procedures, WTHI.com reports.


With BLR's QuikStep Guides to Hiring, Firing, Appraisal, and Discipline, you get a simple step-by-step solution with detailed instructions, samples, tips, and checklists.


Tackett, an aspiring musician, says that he is thankful for all the hits to his Myspace page. The page highlights his music as well as an upcoming performance with a national recording artist.

He also reassured customers of the Burger King that it is a clean restaurant, "It's totally a safe place to eat," Tackett told WTHI.com . "I would eat there still, but I'm not allowed."

Source: WTHI.com


'Wimps Need Not Apply'

NBC will premier its new reality show, "America's Toughest Jobs," after the Olympics. The premise is to take 13 people in "humdrum" jobs and put them in occupations that require "guts and stamina"--maybe in an HR office when the dental provider changes?

From the creators of "Deadliest Catch" and "Ice Road Truckers," the show will feature 13 contestants trying "the most challenging, dangerous, and demanding jobs on the planet," according to the NBC press release, such as extreme fishing, logging, trucking, and oil drilling.

At the end of each episode, the contestants' supervisor and co-workers for the job will "vote off" the least capable participant. Until the show debuts on Monday, August 25, we won't know if "kissing up" will count in the decision, but we're pretty sure someone will try since the last person standing in the final episode will win $250,000.


Well, it may not have "ice road truckers," but BLR's SmartJobs has more than 500 prewritten, ADA-compliant job descriptions to save you time and effort.


Among the contestants are a pharmaceutical sales rep, an investment banker, a scientific recruiter, a software company vice president, and a math teacher.

And good thing the contestants aren't classified as employees who come under state and federal employment laws; wouldn't want "the peacock" to be accused of discrimination (although last time we looked, wimps weren't a protected class).

Source: NBC.com


 
TGIF - It's HR
Strange But True
Get your weekend off to a great start with your own copy of HR Strange but True e-mailed to you each Friday, absolutely free. Catch up on the latest odd, offbeat, and humorous HR stories. Just enter your e-mail address and click "Go."

(Don't forget to click the activation link in the confirmation e-mail you receive.)

Privacy