Written by Vaclav Koranda

Catch Me If You Can: How to Lie on Your Resume

In the movie “Catch Me If You Can”, Frank Abagnale Jr. assumes several identities with entirely different careers: Pan Am pilot, doctor, lawyer. Although the film doesn’t explicitly show him creating a fake resume, it’s highly unlikely he had legitimate resumes for each of these roles.

But while his whole life story is rather extraordinary, faking a resume is apparently a common thing. Based on numerous surveys, most people lie on their resume. I did too, actually*. And according to statistics, there’s a high chance you have as well. That’s why I wrote this article—to advise you on how to do it properly.

Don’t expect any moralizing from me this time, though. The philosophy of truth and lies is a complex and fascinating area with many different viewpoints, but let’s leave all that aside. I want to focus only on the practical aspects of enhancing your resume and leave the decision of what is right and what is wrong to you.

How People Lie on their Resumes?

In 2023, ResumeLab surveyed almost 2,000 employees and found that they were lying at astoundingly high rates throughout the job application process:

  • 70% confessed they had lied on their resumes;
  • 76% admitted they had lied in their cover letters;
  • 80% said they had lied during a job interview.

About 40-50% in each category admitted they had lied frequently. The top lies included enhancing job titles and responsibilities in general (52%), exaggerating the number of people managed (45%), and overstating the length of employment (37%).

I have seen many things throughout my career myself, and you can find many different stories on sites like Reddit or Quora. These range from faking a degree, submitting a reference letter written by a friend who claimed to have been the candidate’s supervisor but wasn’t, people sending friends to interview on their behalf**, to people simply turning up for the onboarding session without even having gone through the hiring process at all.

How to Lie Without Being Caught

Some candidates have successfully faked their entire resume, while others were caught and eliminated for altering just a trifle. Additionally, every career coach will teach you to tailor your resume and cover letter for each application—but where is the borderline between tailoring and lying? Let’s examine the cases where you are more likely to get away with it:

  • Employment Dates, Years of Experience, etc.: Only round off. Never completely fake dates or inflate your experience by years; such discrepancies can be easily discovered during a background check, and you won’t be able to explain them plausibly.
  • Quantifiable Achievements: Similar to the above, only round off; never fake numbers entirely.
  • Scope of Responsibility: You might be tempted to claim responsibility for something someone else did. These details may be hard for the hiring company to verify, so you might get away with it— but only if you’re sure you can actually do the job.
  • Skills: If the job description lists skills you don’t have, you might consider adding them to your resume to get shortlisted. Only do this if you’re a fast learner, can invest extra effort, the skill doesn’t require extensive experience, and the risk of failure is low. Be aware that some companies conduct skills tests, though***.
  • Job Title: Sometimes companies assign unusual job titles to their employees. Using your real job title might confuse recruiters and obscure the true nature of your role. To avoid your resume being eliminated by ATS or a human prescreener, it’s generally safe to use a job title that closely matches your actual duties (e.g., ‘Marketing Manager’) and put your real (weird) job title in brackets (e.g., ‘Jungle Gym Patrol’—this is a real example, by the way).
  • Keywords: Replacing your own words with keywords from the job description throughout your resume can significantly improve your chances of getting past the ATS. This might involve adjusting phrasing in your experience or skills section to reflect the specific language used in the job posting. This is acceptable as long as you can relate the keywords back to your work history.

Beware, Though…

I have to warn you, however, that none of the above is guaranteed to work 100%. On one hand, some companies may have a less rigorous screening process. For example, if a company has a small HR department or limited resources for hiring, there might be a chance they skip background checks or in-depth interviews, allowing enhanced information to slip through the cracks.

On the other hand, many companies use third-party providers nowadays to perform background checks on all their candidates. They may also verify your information informally through their network. You would be surprised sometimes how small the world is.

Additionally, things may come up later during your employment, and you may still be caught later on or at least questioned. Apart from not having the declared education, skills, or experience (for which you might be able to make up), there is also the trust issue. When the company discovers the discrepancy, even years later, they may lose trust in you, which can have severe consequences****.

Conclusion

After reading all the above, should you lie or not? I leave the decision to you. Whatever you do with your resume, weigh the potential risk and reward carefully.

In any case, ensure your resume looks professional, is well-structured, and optimized for ATS (Applicant Tracking System) compatibility. The easiest way to produce a solid resume is to start with a high-quality professional template. This will enable you to showcase your skills and experience effectively, making a strong impression on potential employers with minimal effort. The internet is full of rather useless, would-be fancy-looking templates cluttered with rubbish that are sold for prices up to $59. Just forget about them, save your money, and download my professional resume template for free here.

If you want to learn everything about crafting an impressive resume, be sure to check out my book, Get Your Dream Job.

Good luck!

*) At the very beginning of my career, I listed MS Excel skills on my resume. I had never worked with the program before, but I had seen my father using it for his accounting, and I thought it seemed fairly simple—just entering numbers and performing basic calculations. When I got the job, however, I had to spend countless nights trying to figure out how to make it do what I wanted.

**) Once, we had a candidate in a video interview. His resume was perfect, and he performed very well in the interview too. However, the hiring manager was puzzled when the new hire looked somewhat different and didn’t have the skills he seemed to demonstrate in the interview. After an inquiry, the candidate confessed that he had actually sent his friend’s resume, who looked similar to him, and that friend had also done the interview on his behalf. He was terminated during the probationary period.

***) Once, my company was looking for Spanish-speaking salespeople because we wanted to expand our reach into the South American region. Spanish language skills were not very common in my country at that time, so we struggled to fill the role. Finally, we found a candidate who claimed to be fluent in Spanish. During the interview, my HR colleague asked him to say something in Spanish to prove his skill. The candidate confidently delivered a complete sentence in Spanish. However, he didn’t expect my colleague to actually be fluent in Spanish. My colleague followed up and tried to have a conversation with the candidate, which failed miserably. Needless to say, we rejected and blacklisted this candidate.

****) We had an employee who faked his degree but performed well for 10 years. We only discovered this when he moved to a different team where the customer required a background screening. As a result, we had to terminate him immediately due to a loss of trust.

You Might Also Like:

What would you like to hear about next? Tell me at vaclav@getyourdreamjob.co

Do you want to get new posts directly to your mailbox? Subscribe here.

3 Ways how I can help you further:

  1. Get my book – Learn all the job search insider tips and tricks and use them to your advantage.
  2. Get my online course – Get access to aids, guides, workbooks, checklists, cheat sheets, and other exclusive content to speed up your job search.
  3. Work with me 1:1 – Book one of my coaching packages and get my personal support.

Leave a comment