Throughout his career, Hanchard has “come across many cases where job offers have been revoked as a result of an embellished CV, and several cases where employees have gone on to be dismissed either for having lied during the recruitment process, or for claiming skills that it was later discovered they did not have”.
First, chancellor Rachel Reeves made headlines for all the wrong reasons after it emerged that her LinkedIn profile erroneously elongated her stint at the Bank of England by nine months (she’d previously been called out for claiming she’d worked as an economist at HBOS, when she was employed in retail banking instead).
When we weigh up whether or not to misrepresent ourselves on a job application, we are essentially “deciding if that added boost to the strength of a CV is worth the consequence if it gets found out”.
We all want to present the best possible version of ourselves when we’re applying for jobs, but when does putting a positive spin on your experiences cross a line into all-out lying, and what might be the consequences?
In a crowded, competitive and often dispiriting job market, you can understand why some jobseekers might start to throw in a few superlatives or add a glossier spin to their achievements.
