Finding a job can be a violent scramble, where suited and booted interviewees will do almost anything to pip others to the post, including slagging off other applicants and pulling them to the ground by the hair before they even make it to the interview.
Many of our bad habits have been picked up from The Apprentice. In fact, the so called “Apprentice effect” has helped to lead many jobseekers astray, with half now agreeing that CV “embellishment” is all hunky dory.
That’s according to a study by Samsung Galaxy Note 4, which quizzed 2,000 working British adults on their current roles and their career plans for 2015.
A third of Brits admitted they told fibs to land their current jobs, with the top CV lies being exaggerated grades (with 31% of liars taking this approach) and exaggerating day-to-day responsibilities in previous roles (26%). Other common fabrications are previous job titles and personal achievements and awards (each popular with 22% of culprits).
All seems fine and good, until you get the job, and suddenly it becomes clear to your boss that you don’t know much about conducting chemical experiments and had actually just gotten a bit carried away in your smooth-talking interview.
A less surprising 10% of fibbers neglected to tell their interviewer they were fired from their previous position, while 14% said they spoke a language which they didn’t.
Bear in mind that you may get caught out in your interview. If you said you’re fluent in French, then be prepared to have a full-blown conversation – and it won’t be about your pet rabbit or what you did last weekend.
Former Apprentice guru and brand ambassador for the Samsung Galaxy Note 4; Nick Hewed commented: “I am not surprised that so many people admit to lying on the CVs – we see the same thing on The Apprentice year in, year out however it is worth noting that we nearly always find the lies! My advice would be to be honest and weigh up your options before you make any drastic life changing decisions”.
By all means start brushing up that CV, but beware of telling white lies and losing out on a chance at getting your ideal job altogether.
We like to think that not all lessons learned from The Apprentice are bad, so for the March issue of TNT Magazine, we’re interviewing the winner of The Apprentice, Mark Wright. As an Aussie we expect he’ll be far more honest! Ahem.
