A nose for lying CVs
4 Aug 08
The good news for snobs is that fewer people from top universities lie on application forms for City jobs
The bad news is that even so, one in seven does so.
A survey of nearly 4,000 applications for graduate jobs in the City found “discrepancies” ranging from embellishment to downright falsehoods in 22 per cent of cases.
The study, by recruitment screening consultancy Powerchex, did not include the “low level spin” expected on most CVs.
“Major embellishment”, included wildly exaggerated job responsibilities, fictional employment and academic histories and even the concealment of criminal records.
As CVs are often sorted by degree and university before a candidates has a chance of an interview, graduates may cheat simply to be seen.
The study found discrepancies from only 14 per cent of candidates from the top 20 universities – as ranked by the Times Good University Guide – but 43 per cent from institutions outside the top 100.
Those with degree results worse than a 2.1 were also more frequent offenders.