Here’s how you can check if an applicant is lying on their resume

Friday October 13, 2017 , 3 min Read

We've all lied at some point in our lives. Whether it is to protect someone or to save face, we utter white lies more often than we think. However, the one place you shouldn't dream of lying is on your resume.

Resume fraud is on the rise, and as a recruiter, it is natural to be concerned about whether facts listed on a candidate's resume are false. This is especially true when everyone in the company is counting on you to make the right hire that will propel the company towards greatness. Replacing a wrongly hired employee is an expensive affair. This is why recruiters should know how to spot a fibber.

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Here are a few steps that you can take to analyze the genuineness of a resume:

Ask applicants for specific months of previous employment

Most applicants list only years on the date range for past employment. While this doesn't always mean that they are lying about their work experience, it is still better to probe a little further. Many job seekers sneakily increase the years they spent at a job or fill in employment gaps with fictitious companies. A careful line of questioning about the candidate's employment record will help you weed out the liars.

Probe further into sabbaticals

Several employees try their hand at freelancing after they've exited a stressful job. Some others spend their sabbaticals exploring the world or furthering their education. If education is the case, they'll have a degree to back their story. However, if you want to know the truth behind any other reason that they have stated, ask for details. It's easy to have a well-rehearsed one-liner about almost anything, but weaving a believable story on-the-spot can only be done by a compulsive liar. If that's the case, then you're in real trouble.

Background checks

From job titles to salary history, background checks are absolutely critical considering the resume frauds that job-seekers commit in today's time. Of course, conducting these checks is a time-consuming and tedious task, but it is absolutely necessary. Be sure to examine all the details provided to you under a microscope. This is because there are plenty of websites that create fake job references and anything from an associate degree to a fellowship.

Give real-world tests

One of the easiest ways to find out if someone is embellishing their skill-set is to get them to attempt a test that will examine their real ability. For example, if you're hiring for the post of a social media manager, ask them to create a campaign around a brand of your choice. Critical thinking is always more important than the fluff on a resume. Conducting a test will give you an insight into the candidate's problem-solving capabilities.

It is not always easy to spot a liar. Sociopaths, for example, can fool just about everybody. That is why you need to trust your gut and investigate deeply to check if the facts stated on a resume are indeed true.