For those among us who have ever exaggerated or fibbed while applying or interviewing for a job, rest assured that you are hardly alone. A new survey found that more than 70 percent of job applicants have exhibited dishonesty during the hiring process.
The findings come from ResumeTemplates.com, which recently surveyed 1,759 applicants who have looked for a job in the past two years. Among the revelations are that 71 percent of job seekers cheated or lied during the hiring process, 22 percent cheated on an assessment, another 22 percent lied on their resume, and nearly half gave a false reference.
Of the 71 percent who admitted to cheating during the hiring process, 15 percent confessed to always or often cheating, while another 20 percent said they occasionally do, and 35 percent rarely. Only about one-third, or 29 percent, say they have never cheated during the hiring process.
When it comes to the 22 percent who have cheated during online assessments, 71 percent say they had searched for answers on Google when they had been instructed not to do so, while 37 percent asked ChatGPT to do the heavy lifting and 33 percent sought out assistance from others.
The reasons why 22 percent of job seekers lied on their resume and 13 percent fudged their cover letters also runs the gamut.
Job seekers who lied about their years of experience accounted for 54 percent of those surveyed, with 50 percent lying about skills or abilities, 39 percent about the duration of previous positions, 38 percent about former employers, 35 percent about prior job responsibilities, 30 percent when it came to professional achievements, 24 percent about professional credentials or associations, 48 percent about references, and 27 percent about education.
Meanwhile, a whopping 46 percent of recent job seekers admit that they’ve given false references. Nearly half said they did so because they believed it would yield better results, 44 percent because they didn’t have any or enough real references, and 23 percent because their former employer had an unfavorable opinion of them.
Yet, despite these shocking numbers, the professional consequences reported were disparate. Only 31 percent said they faced professional consequences, including 17 percent who had a job offer rescinded, with 13 percent eventually being reprimanded and another 11 percent getting fired.
However, a whopping 80 percent of job seekers who admitted to cheating said that they nevertheless were able to land a job.
“Competition from high numbers of applicants—coupled with more virtual forms of interviewing—are two major reasons job seekers cheat during the hiring process,” said Andrew Stoner, executive resume writer and career coach. “The proliferation of technological resources and the perceived low risk of being caught might be emboldening more applicants to take their chances.”
“Based on this study, giving false references was one of the most frequent forms of cheating during the hiring process,” Stoner continued. “Simply using LinkedIn or other employment verification tools to validate references could be an easy way for employers to identify applicants who are cheating.”