Managers - Are you seeing an uptick in falsified resumes?

[Slickpick]

Hello everyone,

We have had a large amount of candidates submit highly embellished resumes recently. I understand that individuals exaggerate a few things to stand out, but we have had candidates flat out lie about their experience and credentials just to get their foot in the door. In addition, there are candidates who do not meet criteria asking for excessive salaries.

A few of the things we are seeing (The positions we have had open are Quality based roles):

• Buzzwords and statements such as "expert in APQP and PPAP" - Candidates fail to explain even the basics of what a PPAP is or encompasses during the interview
  • Some candidates have even said during interviews "I don't know what those are. Those shouldn't be on my resume"
• Individuals are claiming to have ASQ certifications when they don't (cannot provide to us and their name does not come up on ASQ's certificate registry)
• Excessive job hoppers
• Salary requests of over $100,000 with almost no experience or knowledge

Is anyone else involved with the hiring process experiencing this? If so, has it gotten worse recently, or has it always been like this?

 

[Johnnymo62]

I have job hopped 8 times to get to my 12th company since I left the Navy. This is because I can get a better salary increase than the raises given at every company I worked for. I have never worked at a company that offered more than a 3.5% raise and they were usually around 1.8 - 2%. Job hopping has given me between 5-10% raises every few years. My last hop was a 18% raise.

 

[Bev D]

Job hopping is not necessarily a bad sign. It usually means what Johnny said. I did it too until my last employer who compensated me fairly, promoted me and gave me the opportunity of a lifetime to do what I do best.

Lying on your resume is a red flag stop sign.

 

[Miner]

I have job hopped 8 times to get to my 12th company since I left the Navy. This is because I can get a better salary increase than the raises given at every company I worked for. I have never worked at a company that offered more than a 3.5% raise and they were usually around 1.8 - 2%. Job hopping has given me between 5-10% raises every few years. My last hop was a 18% raise.

I can definitely understand why you did that, and you raised some good points. You can definitely make more money job hopping than sticking with the same company.

However, from the company's perspective and as a former hiring manager, when I saw a resume with a lot of 1-2 years at each company, I started to wonder whether that was because the person was constantly getting terminated for incompetence, running away from issues that were catching up with them, could not fit into the company's culture, etc. The negative possibilities outnumbered the possibility that they were good and searching for more money. But even if that were the case, I would have to decide whether it was worth hiring someone I knew would leave in a few years. It would depend on the learning curve. Many employees are a net loss to the company until 6-12 months after hire. Someone that leaves after 1 year would be a net zero contribution.

Note: I didn't have a problem if the resume only have a couple 1-2 year jobs if they had more jobs with longer durations. Also, I am speaking from the perspective of someone that has worked at large companies with multiple global locations. Smaller companies can have much shorter learning curves.

 

[Bev D]

Yeah my jumps were about 3-5 years apart. I would really try to stick it out but sometimes you just gotta take care of yourself.

 

[Slickpick]

3-5 years doesn't seem bad at all. We're seeing some candidates moving every 3-6 months...

 

[Miner]

Yeah my jumps were about 3-5 years apart. I would really try to stick it out but sometimes you just gotta take care of yourself.

I would have no problems with a resume that looked like that.

 

[AllTheThings]

I think some people are using generative AI tools to "write" their resumes...As in "I worked as a quality operator, please ChatGPT, write me a resume entry for that". Then it gives a standardized resume entry for that position based on learning inputs from scraping millions of online resumes, not something based on what the person did.

It would be a huge red flag for me, if someone couldn't defend what was on their resume. If someone moved from automotive to cloud software 10 years ago, and doesn't remember what an AIAG PSW stands for, but can describe how they worked a new part process that's one thing. But claiming an ASQ cert? If that is on my resume, I'm checking the database before I start interviewing to make sure it is there.

I've never job-hopped, but I rarely judge it...Only reason I haven't is because my employers have made it worth staying, and I've been lucky to be able to vet them while applying. In between, I've done contract stints at companies where I was glad it was only a few months of work, just based on how the permanent employees were treated...Lots of crap employers out there.

 

[Golfman25]

Hiring sucks these days. I think most resumes are written, embellished, to get past the algorithms, which is what you’re seeing. Job hoppers suck, but is really common these days. Hiring is such a PIA I really would prefer someone that sticks around. $100,000 is the new “minimum” wage, which is why you’re seeing those requests. Lots of bad employees out there. The old adage rings true — hire slow, fire fast.

 

[ChrisM]

We need AI that is capable of detecting a CV or Resume written by AI.
As per AllTheThings above, I suspect that many candidates are using AI to produce a CV that may bear very little relation to their actual experience and qualifications; it is a bit of a worry