Lying for the Job

As the rate of unemployment steadily climbs, the competition in the job market heats up. The market belongs to employers with 10s, even 100s of applicants applying for each job posted. If you're among the many unemployed, searching for work, and quickly running out of money, the temptation to lie or exaggerate on your resume can be big, especially if you have something to cover up.

If you were fired for performance problems and don't acknowledge them, you could be offered a nice base salary and possibly a bonus to go with it. But if word about your performance issues spreads across the grapevine, as those types of words often do, you could be in for a world of pain. Your employer will likely terminate you for cause. What you might not expect: they can sue you for that hefty bonus, citing that your received it under false pretenses. Now you're out of a job and out of money.

According to a Stanford University study conducted some years back, more than 90% of resumes, in some respect or other, contain false or misleading information, ranging from slight embellishment to outright fraud.