In today’s challenging market, finding a job can be a long, frustrating process, and some job seekers have resorted to fibbing in order to present themselves as better candidates for a role.
A recent report from FlexJobs found that 1 in 3 workers admit to lying on their resumes, from faking their enthusiasm to covering up employment gaps.
HR expert Hebba Youssef says that she’s seen an uptick in advice, especially on social media, for job candidates to “just lie” on their resume and in interviews.
To her, their desperation makes sense: “The world is way too expensive for us to not have jobs,” she says.
Youssef is sympathetic to those job seekers — “a lot of us are lying in interviews simply because we need to put our best foot forward, and I don’t think that’s a negative thing,” she says — but she can usually tell when candidates are stretching the truth.
