Lies, embellishments prevalent in resumes

As applicants try to get a leg up on the competition in a tight job market, a new survey by CareerBuilder.com finds there's a lot of lying on resumes these days.

Michael Erwin, senior career adviser for CareerBuilder, said "58 percent of hiring managers say that they have found people who have embellished their skills."

The survey found 55 percent of the hiring decision-makers said job applicants embellished previous career responsibilities. One in three managers found truth-stretching for such things as academic degrees and job titles.

Resume lies were most prevalent in the field of financial services, with better than seven in 10 managers finding falsehoods. Seventy-one percent of managers who hired for positions in leisure and hospitality also found lies. And better than six in 10 employers considering health care applicants uncovered faulty information.

Erwin said one of his favorite lies was an applicant who claimed 25 years' experience in a certain field. He was 32 years old. In fact, the group Partners in Human Resources International found that younger people are more likely to lie, millennials especially.

"Another claimed to be an Olympic gold medalist," Erwin said. "And you know, that's an easy Google search."

Still another applicant claimed to be the assistant to the Prime Minister of a foreign country that doesn't have a Prime Minister.

Employers routinely do background checks, Erwin said, and if there's a lie, it raises a big red flag.

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