Who’s Going to Check Your CV Anyway? The Truth About Lying on Your CV

Hey, fancy making your CV a little more impressive? Don’t worry, nobody actually checks this stuff. Lying on your CV is only a problem if somebody catches you, right? You can give yourself a slightly better job title, add a few responsibilities you were “involved with”, round a couple of figures up and perhaps move that qualification from “working towards” to “achieved”. It’s only a CV after all, not a sworn statement to Parliament. And let’s be honest, recruiters aren’t going to start digging through your entire employment history just because you said you managed a team of 15 when there were actually seven of you. Are they?

Your job title is supportive!

Yes, it’s true that your actual job title was Sales Executive, but that doesn’t really capture the importance of what you did, does it? You dealt with customers, attended meetings and once helped the Sales Manager with a spreadsheet, so “Senior Commercial Account Manager” sounds much more representative. Perhaps even “Commercial Manager” if you’re feeling confident. After all, titles are just words and words can mean whatever you want them to mean. You weren’t technically promoted, but you were doing more than your job description, and if anyone asks, that’s basically the same thing. LinkedIn does rather spoil this little game, though, because its own rules say your employment history should be accurate and that untruthful information can result in your profile being flagged or restricted. LinkedIn’s guidance on representing yourself accurately

Your achievements are historic!

You increased sales by £47,000? Put £50k. You saved £18,700? £20k sounds much better. You helped manage a team of eight? Well, there were nine people in the department and you once organised the Christmas lunch, so “managed a team of nine” seems perfectly reasonable. And that project you contributed to? You may as well say you delivered it. Nobody wants to read a CV full of tedious little distinctions between “led”, “supported”, “contributed to” and “was in the room when it happened”. You need impact! You need numbers! You need big impressive statements that make somebody think, “Good grief, we need this person.” The only slight problem is that big impressive statements have a nasty habit of being followed by questions. How did you generate that £50k? What exactly did you manage? What was your role in the project? Suddenly your lovely round number has become a rather awkward interview question.

Your qualification is intense!

Come on, you’ve completed 90% of the course. You’re definitely going to pass. You’ve done all the assignments. The certificate is practically sitting in your hand, so why not just put the qualification on the CV now? It saves having to write “currently studying towards”, and frankly that takes up valuable space. You can always change it later. Ofqual might not be quite so relaxed about the distinction. Its guidance on qualification fraud points out that qualifications can be a passport to employment and that employers need to be able to trust that someone who holds a qualification has actually demonstrated the required knowledge and skills. It also identifies qualifications needed for employment or professional licensing as being particularly vulnerable to fraud. Ofqual – Tackling qualification fraud In other words, “I was going to get it” probably isn’t the same thing as actually getting it.

Your LinkedIn is separate!

This is where it gets clever. Your CV says you were a Head of Operations. LinkedIn says Operations Manager. Your old company website says Operations Coordinator. Your former boss remembers you as an Administrator. But that’s fine because they’re all separate things and nobody talks to each other. You can have several versions of your career floating around the internet like some sort of professional multiverse. Perhaps your CV can say you managed £10m in revenue while LinkedIn says £3m and your old employer says you looked after a few accounts. Who’s going to notice? Well, LinkedIn explicitly says members shouldn’t falsify information about their work experience, qualifications or achievements, and its professional community policies prohibit misleading information about yourself. LinkedIn Professional Community Policies So apparently the world’s largest professional networking site has anticipated the “it was only a little exaggeration” defence.

Nobody will check!

This is the bit people seem particularly confident about. Nobody checks dates. Nobody checks job titles. Nobody checks qualifications. Nobody checks whether you actually managed that many people. Nobody even remembers where they worked five years ago, never mind what their job title was. Excellent. Except the UK Government’s own personnel security standard says employment and academic history can be verified, with checks covering previous employment and education for relevant security vetting. It also specifically identifies false or unsubstantiated CV claims and qualifications as potential concerns. UK Government – Baseline Personnel Security Standard So while your average employer probably isn’t going to launch a full forensic investigation because you described yourself as “Senior” instead of “Assistant”, perhaps don’t build your entire career around the assumption that nobody can find out.

Your references are optional!

References are one of those annoying little things that get in the way of a good fictional career. You’ve got the perfect CV, the impressive LinkedIn profile and a beautifully inflated list of achievements, and then somebody wants to speak to your previous employer. How inconvenient. Fortunately, you can always put “references available on request” and hope nobody remembers to ask. Or perhaps provide the details of someone who was technically your manager but left the company three years ago and now lives in Australia. That should keep things interesting. The reality is that employers may ask for references to verify your employment history, experience or suitability for a role, so the safest approach is still the boring one: make sure the people you provide can actually confirm what you’ve told the employer. Annoyingly, honesty remains a fairly useful career strategy.

Your CV is creative!

Absolutely. Your CV should sell you. You should choose the strongest examples, focus on achievements, explain your responsibilities properly and make sure the person reading it understands what you actually did rather than leaving them to work it out from 14 years of job descriptions. There’s nothing wrong with saying you supported a £2m project and explaining the specific part you delivered. There’s nothing wrong with saying you helped turn around an underperforming team if you can show what you actually changed. And if your official title was “Administrator” but you were genuinely doing work at a much higher level, explain that. You don’t need to make things up when the truth is probably more interesting than the way you’ve written it.

Anyway, back to reality...

If you’ve spent more than ten seconds reading this, you’ll probably have noticed I wasn’t being entirely serious. Lying on your CV isn’t the same as making your experience sound impressive. Your CV should sell you. The point isn’t that you should undersell yourself or write a CV that sounds like a job description from 2009. Far from it. Your CV should make your experience look good. It should highlight the results, the responsibility and the stuff that makes you a stronger candidate. But there’s a rather large difference between making your experience sound better and quietly inventing a new career because the real one doesn’t sound impressive enough.

If you were an Administrator doing work way above your job title, tell them. If you contributed to a £2m project, explain what you actually did. If you increased sales by £47k, put the £47k down and explain how you did it. You don’t need to turn yourself into the CEO of your old company just to get somebody’s attention.

Because sooner or later, somebody might actually ask.

And when your CV says you managed 25 people, your LinkedIn says 12 and your old boss is sitting in the reference call wondering who the other 13 were, it might be a little late to start worrying about accuracy.

So yes, make your CV impressive.

Just make sure it’s your CV they’re impressed by.