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These are the four things we’re most likely to lie about on a CV

Hiring managers will be on the look out for these common porkies

These are the four things we’re most likely to lie about on a CV
04 October 2018

There are many, many tedious things you have to do when you’re an adult, like paying your bills *groans*, going to dinner parties *shivers* and, worst of all, doing a big weekly shop *runs screaming out of the room never to return*.

But perhaps the most mind-numbing of all is having to update your CV when applying for a new job.

So it’s no wonder that so many of us tend to get a little bit creative when it comes to our employment history. In fact, more than one in three jobseekers (38%) have lied on their CV at least once, according to new insight from a nationwide study.

The statistics, compiled by hiring app Job Today, also found that men were more likely to tell porkies than women. And across the board, both sexes revealed that fear of the competition was the biggest factor behind the need to exaggerate their past experience.

These are the top four things we’re most likely to lie about on our CV:

- Speaking a foreign language

According to the survey, job seekers will often exaggerate the foreign language ability. I mean we’ve all pretended that the GCSE in French from decades ago qualifies us as some sort of translation expert.

The top languages lied about include French, Spanish and Italian.

Hobbies are big thing we bullshit about on our CVs

- Hobbies

Out of fear of appearing uninteresting, we’ll often lie about our favourite past times, according to the study.

The top hobbies lied about include being on a sports society at University, going to the gym and creative hobbies such as painting.

- False qualifications and education

The study found that many of us are also likely to stretch the truth when it comes to training and education. We just hope, you know, that pilots and surgeons aren’t pulling the same tricks on their CVs.

- Amount of time spent at a previous job

Another common lie is exaggerating how much experience you have and how much time you spent at a job.  

(Images: Getty)