Fibs flow on job applications

Some applicants lie about their education. "We always call the school, no matter where it is around the world," says Dora Vell, who runs an executive search firm in Waltham, Mass. "We don't trust the certificate [an applicant] may provide. A CEO actually forged a degree from an institution. We called the school and they couldn't confirm the degree."

Misrepresenting dates of employment is another easy way to get caught, Ivey notes. "Even if an employer will say nothing else about your work there, they typically will confirm employment dates if they're asked to verify them."

Still other people omit companies they worked for, or say they were 'consulting' if they had a series of failed assignments, Ms. Vell says. That way, their work history appears more stable.

Ruff's firm had a candidate who was seeking a job in medical sales. He was hired, but when the company conducted a background check, it found he had held another job that was not on his résumé. The employer terminated him.

"If he had been honest and had listed the additional job, it would not have been a problem," Ruff says.

Some applicants pretend to know someone they don't. People drop names, Vell says. "I just had someone call and say someone on the board of my client recommended him. Apparently, the board member had not referred him."

To be sure candidates are not misrepresenting their compensation, Vell usually asks, "What did your W-2 show last year?" It implies that she will check, even though she often doesn't.

Vell once caught a CEO lying about his personal status. "He had a spouse on the East Coast and a fiancée on the West Coast. In reference checking, we found two different family situations."

Many people think about fudging their foreign language skills, Ivey finds. "That's one of the easiest ways to get busted," she warns. "All it takes is one person in the interview saying, 'Great, let's conduct the interview in Spanish.' And there you are."

When Beshara confronts errant applicants by saying, "You lied on your résumé," their responses vary. "I've had people say, 'The registrar's office at the University of Oklahoma burned down.' Or, 'I'll look for my diploma.' That's the last you hear from them. Others say, 'I'll change the résumé. Find me a job.' "

'I didn't mean to be unethical'

Yet many people reject those cavalier attitudes. Don Moore, associate professor of organizational behavior at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, finds great interest in ethical issues among the MBA students in his classes.

"They're both looking for guidance and trying to make sense of and define their own values," he says. "My own research on ethical judgment suggests that there are very few people who knowingly and intentionally engage in unethical behavior.... Evidence suggests that a lot of biased, incorrect statements are made by people who have convinced themselves they are true."

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