over 53% of people lie on their resumes!
The resume. Fact or Fiction?
Here are the top 3 ways to discover if the person you are considering to hire is a resume liar.
These 3 ways are part of the process we use in recruiting.
Let’s go through a few of the steps we use.
EQ Testing & Assessment
Stress management, assertiveness skills, empathy, and political/social acumen are critical success factors that have a direct impact on the bottom line. These can be assessed in an Emotional Intelligence (EQ in the workplace) test profile. We use an online profile that was selected for measuring many competencies including integrity & trust. This same profile showcases how good someone is at promoting themselves & performing in an interview.
We conduct these EQ profiles on Candidates just before the first face to face interview with the Client. Each profile suggests that for a certain position, the Candidate can be low risk, medium risk or high risk. Although its not the sole factor in making a hiring decision, we don’t present high risk Candidates to our Clients.
- testing confirms the Candidate’s motivation, attitude & compliance
- testing identifies individuals who put their own needs ahead of the company’s interests
- testing helps match the Candidate EQ to the competencies required for the specific job
- testing determines if the individual will be great in the interview (but perhaps not great in the job)
There are still other ways to spot a resume liar.
Reference Checks
Maybe you don’t have access or training for EQ testing and assessment.
If you are trying to collect resumes and do the hiring yourself, DON’T MISS THIS STEP and don’t accept excuses from the job applicant for not delivering contact info. for references. “out of town”, “can’t get the telephone number”, “no longer at the company” – are these excuses?
You can discover a resume liar by doing a thorough reference check. We conduct scheduled & structured 20-30 minute telephone interviews.
- we schedule formal structured reference interviews
- we only use work references where the job Candidate directly worked for & reported to the reference OR the reference reported directly to the Candidate
- no friends
- no family
- no co-workers
- we use the results of the EQ profile to focus on issues or concerns
- we verify the data provided; income, duration, responsibilities, results, capabilities, licenses, competencies
The Face to Face Interview
Some people are great in interviews. This doesn’t mean they will be good at their work.
They promote themselves well, and can show interest and excitement during an interview – but they could turn out to be duds at the job.
Integrity and trust are critical in every job. Do you want to hire a liar?
The face to face interview is an opportunity to get past first impressions, and dig into the facts about their past performance. Hopefully you are looking at a good functional-style resume which focuses on “What I Can Do For You” not absolutely everything I have done.
Its interview time. You have a resume in front of you, and sitting across from you is your job Candidate – What do you do to Spot a Resume Liar?
The face to face interview is a chance to match up the requirements for peak performance with specific questions that will verify competency, experience… essentially check out all the “claims” of a good resume. Ask the questions & make notes (you will need them for the reference checks)
- read the resume in advance
- be prepared with questions about anything you want related to the job and job performance
- ask specific questions about “claims” on and off the resume, collect more information; income, commissions, bonuses, title, responsibilities, scope of work, duration, gaps in work (it is not unusual to find obvious “mistakes”)
- ask questions and drill on experience & competency
