Recruiters beware! One in five people in APAC admit to having lied on their CV

YouGov finds that the most common lies people tell are about their experience and personal interests

New YouGov research finds a fifth (18%) of APAC residents admit to having lied on their CV (additionally 5% who say they would “prefer not to say”). But what porkies are they telling?

The results show that, first and foremost, experience is the most likely part of a CV to be embellished, with four in ten (44%) résumé embellishers having fibbed about this.

People who worry about not sounding interesting enough in the “personal interests” section of their résumé should note that this too was a fairly common fabrication, with three in ten (32%) CV liars admitting to lying here. Other common CV lies include how long respondents had spent in a job (30%) and their education or qualifications (30%).

Older jobseekers are more likely to lie about their age

Despite spending less time in the job market, younger generations are more likely to have lied on their CV overall; just one in seven (14%) of those 45+ have lied on their CV, compared with one in five (20%) of those under 45.

However, among those that have lied on the CV, older jobseekers are likely to tell more lies. In particular, older jobseekers are more likely to lie about: their age - a quarter (26%) of those aged 45 and over that have lied about their CV have lied about their age, compared with 16% of those under 44; the length of time they spent in a job (37% of those aged 45+ to 29% of those under 45); and their current salary (28% to 21%).

Colin Marson, CEO of YouGov APAC, comments, “The findings of the latest YouGov Omnibus survey may surprise a fair few employers and recruiters, who have long relied on CVs as a primary means of shortlisting candidates. Given the potential and capability of emerging technologies, recruiters may have to look to more diverse integrated models of recruitment to ensure that companies are getting the best – and the most honest(!) – candidates coming through in the future.”

*Data was collected online between 1 and 21 August 2017 using YouGov’s panel of over 5 million people worldwide. It was weighted to be representative of the online population. Sample size: Asia Pacific (n = 9,241; Australia: 921; China: 1,014; Hong Kong: 1,019; Indonesia: 1,072; Malaysia: 1,092; Philippines: 1,047; Singapore: 1,044; Thailand: 1,019; Vietnam: 1,013)