Study after study confirms that an alarming number of applicants are blatantly lying on their resumes, and a new study reveals many of these folks are likely to get away with it. 

That’s because 48% of HR professionals admit to not always checking an employee’s qualifications, according to a recent study by Adzuna, a job ad search engine company.

Plus, just 62% of HR staffers believe you should check references.

Some other eye-opening stats about HR pros’ habits:

• 30% of HR pros admit they waive qualification checks if the candidate has previous experience
• 35% of companies believe that the responsibility for uncovering resume/CV lies sit with recruitment agencies
• just 6% of HR pros check the social media accounts of candidates, and
• more than half (53%) of HR pros say they’re worried by the poor performance of under-qualified staff.

Top industries for resume embellishments?

When it comes to the job-seekers, the study found that 37% admitted to lying on their resume at some point during their careers.

Of those individuals, 83%  said the lie/lies didn’t stop them from getting the job, and nearly half (43%) said it directly contributed to them getting the job.

The top industries in which job-seekers are likely to lie on their resumes are:

• Marketing or Advertising (17% of candidates)
• Retail (14%)
• Finance (12%), and
• Law (12%).

Lying on a resume is also most prevalent among male candidates (cited by 58% of respondents) between the ages of 25 and 34 years old (34%).

Top industries for resume embellishments?

Based on the findings in the Adzuna study, HR pros must approach the resume pile with a careful eye for red flags.

As HR Morning has mentioned previously, one way to do this is by looking out for common fabrications and outright lies.

Here are three of the most common, courtesy of Fast Company:

1. Inflated roles

According to the OfficeTeam report, 76% of candidates embellished job experience, and 55% exaggerated their job duties.

In an effort get to where they want to go career-wise, job-seekers will put down the titles of jobs they believed they deserved as opposed to their actual work roles.

What to look for: Vague descriptions of skills that aren’t consistent with what your job posting actually demands.

2. Suspicious dates

Job-seekers know gaps in employment tend to raise red flags for recruiters and HR pros. As a result, they tend to get creative in covering up those gaps.

Example: Date blocks that only include the year, instead of the starting/ending month.

3. Lack of degree specificity

Education is a huge area for misrepresentation. While there are a few brazen folks who have the guts to put down big-name schools they never even attended, that type of lie generally isn’t what you have have to worry about.

A far more common fib comes from candidates that put down degrees they never earned or fell just short of earning.

What to look for: Incomplete degree names. For example, someone may put bachelors degree instead of bachelor of science (BS) or bachelor of fine arts (BFA).

To be safe, you’ll want to make sure all degree specs were met and that the candidate isn’t among the individuals who lie about something that they never actually completed.