Dive Brief:
- HR leaders understand that job seekers are often stressed out. After all, for every decent job, there often can be hundreds of applicants. With that context, resume "creativity" has become a problem, rather than a bonus, as HR and hiring managers are not vetting resumes enough, according to a new CareerBuilder survey.
- The survey found that 77% of HR and hiring managers polled report having caught a lie on a resume. In addition to fact bending, the survey revealed some strange and costly miscues by candidates.
- Unfortunately, 43% of HR managers polled said they spend less than a minute looking at a resume and 24% spend less than 30 seconds, which means many of the falsehoods within resumes go undetected.
Dive Insight:
HR managers who want to make the best pre-hiring decisions reported that they are more likely to pay attention to an application when a resume has been customized to their open position (63%), skill sets are listed first on the resume (41%) and a cover letter is included with the resume (40%).
Naturally, HR managers in the survey encountered some amusing resume miscues. For example, one applicant’s name was auto-corrected from “Flin” to “Flintstone,” and yes, his name was Freddie. Another applicant said they paid great attention to detail, but “attention” was misspelled. And another applicant said he had worked at a federal prison, but a background check found he actually was an inmate at the prison during that time.
The CareerBuilder survey on resume flubs amplifies the notion that today's job candidate pool may be lower in quality than employers would prefer. Not only should HR managers spend more time scanning resumes for red flags, many employers and HR leaders are also increasing background and reference checks.
