CareerBuilder recently surveyed more than 2,000 hiring and human resources managers, spanning a variety of company sizes and industries.
As an applicant, here are two takeaways from the survey that you don’t want to overlook:
• 70 percent of employers spend five minutes or less reviewing a resume.
• Nearly half of employers only spend two minutes reviewing a resume.
Along with the above, the survey notes that approximately 50 percent of hiring managers have caught a lie on a resume.
A Blunder is a Bad Thing
When reviewing your resume, you want the hiring manager to be impressed. You want them to enjoy the information so much that they contact you for an interview.
The CareerBuilder survey listed some of the many blunders hiring managers have come across. Here are five of the most entertaining:
• Applicant claimed to be a former CEO of the company to which they were applying.
• Applicant claimed to have worked in a jail when they were really in there serving time.
• Applicant for a driver position claimed to have 10 years of experience but had only had a driver’s license for four years.
• Applicant’s stated job history had him in three different companies and three different cities simultaneously.
• Applicant claimed to be a Nobel Prize winner.
All of these blunders have one thing in common: they started with a lie. If you are 100 percent honest on your resume, which you should be, you never have to concern yourself with this type of mistake.
It may sound like a good idea to lie on your resume. You may believe this is the only way to secure a position. But when it comes down to it, this is not something you should consider.