Recruitment: Separating Fact From Fiction
Ever stood around a braai, trying to impress someone you’ve just met?
“What do I do? Oh, I prepare luxury basement accommodation – with great attention to detail.” (In other words, you dig graves). Or perhaps, “I’m a PA to a really demanding boss.” (Yup, I’m a stay-at-home-parent and my 2-year-old is going through a STAGE…!)
Or have you ever been house-hunting, only to be drastically disappointed when the estate agent’s “cosy living room” actually means “couldn’t even swing a cat in here.” And “the security of nearby neighbours” is really “your garden is overlooked on all sides, and it’s probably best to close the bathroom window blinds when you shower…”
These might be humourous examples, but things can take a more serious turn if that kind of embellishment finds its way onto your CV.
As a forensic investigation company, we’ve seen people lie about everything from missing millions to missing meetings. But nothing prepared us for the creative fiction found in the average CV.
To us, fraud is fraud, and we apply the same scrutiny to CVs that we do to financial cases – and the findings are equally shocking.
You might think it’s smart to use your black belt in creative fiction to tell a prospective employer you have extensive management experience, when you’ve really only supervised one intern for two weeks. The harsh truth is, it’s actually lying – and lying on your CV can land you in a lot of trouble.
You may remember a few years ago, Daniel Mthimkhulu was sentenced to 15 years in prison for faking his qualifications. The former head of engineering at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa), who earned close to R3 million a year, claimed to have several mechanical engineering qualifications, including a degree from Wits and a PhD from a university in Germany.
In reality, his highest qualification was Matric.
In the UK, providing false information on a CV can also constitute fraud under the Fraud Act 2006. And if this is then used to secure a job, especially in a highly regulated industry such as healthcare, education or finance, it becomes fraud by false representation, which could land you in jail.
So the next time you’re thinking about saying you’ve “Led major project initiatives” when all you did was update the office filing system, or that you have “Extensive international experience” because you once went to a conference in Dublin, please think again.
In prison, no one cares about your qualifications – real or fake.
Of course, the problem of being generous about your experience on your CV is not the only issue. We’ve also seen so many people morph into Oscar-winners the moment they step into an interview room.
There are those shiny, newly-minted graduates who talk at length about the industry they want to move into as if they’ve worked there all their lives. The are supremely confident that their so-called knowledge, combined with a degree, entitles them to the same salary as a senior-level executive with decades of experience.
Recruitment experts see it all the time, and it’s a classic case of what’s known as the Dunning-Kruger effect. Named after psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger, who first described it in a 1999 paper, it’s a type of cognitive bias where people with low competence in a specific area tend to overestimate their ability because they lack the awareness to recognise their own shortcomings.
In other words, you’re not clever enough to know what you don’t know, and are highly offended when you get called out on it.
I mean, you may be a CSI fan, but that doesn’t mean you know a darn thing about forensic investigation.
Even applicants with a few years’ work experience under their belts are guilty of doing a similar thing. They might have “managed high-volume food production with a focus on speed and quality” for five years, but does flipping burgers at a busy McDonalds really equip you for a job as a Food and Beverage manager at a 5-star hotel?
And if you’ve spent the past 3 years lying on your couch streaming Netflix, (“I’ve had extensive experience in horizontal hibernation of cinematic delights,”) I’m not sure that qualifies you to direct the next James Bond movie.
As the saying goes, “Confidence is like cologne – a little goes a long way, but too much, and everyone notices for the wrong reasons.”
So, two lessons to take away today:
- Don’t wear too much cologne, and
- Never lie on your CV (or in an interview)
Because both practices stink.