Lying on Your CV - Could Catch You Out

There are certain ethics required when you're applying for a new job. Truthfulness is undoubtedly the most important, possibly the crux of a good application. Wholesale lies, mistruths and exaggerations are utterly discouraged. It has probably crossed every prospective candidate's mind, at some time, that a little embellishment might help their application shine a little brighter when the recruiter peruses hundreds of CV's for an oversubscribed position.

But it seems even the most high-profile figures are not immune from such temptation.

Controversy is swirling in the media world at present after activist investor Daniel Loeb of hedge fund Third Point accused Yahoo! chief executive Scott Thompson of adding a bogus bachelor's computer science degree to his CV.

Yahoo! attempted to pacify the situation when they passed on a revealing email to news giants Reuters and the Associated Press; the email was an internal memo from Scott Thompson himself.

"I want you to know how deeply I regret how this issue has affected the company and all of you," it read.

"We have all been working very hard to move the company forward and this has had the opposite effect. For that, I take full responsibility, and I want to apologise to you."

Rather than this disclosure abating the situation, the embarrassed Thompson was further dragged into the mire, as the memo seemed to all-but-confirm Loeb's initial allegations and there began the calls for his resignation.

According to reports, Third Point (which owns 5.8% of Yahoo! shares) has issued a legal demand for Yahoo! to reveal how much the board knew about Thompson's qualifications before it hired him as their chief executive in January.

So, from this we can safely say the message to candidates young and old when applying for new positions in digital media is ALWAYS BE TRUTHFUL!

This is backed up by Harriet Sanders, Senior Recruitment Consultant at Chrysalis Recruitment who offers this advice to applicants who possibly doubt their skills and are perhaps tempted to overdo their achievements.

"As a recruiter, I will always encourage my candidates to be proud, confident and aggressive with their specific skill-set; we want to catch the company's eye and fast. Rather than use pretence, confidently relate your key skills to tie in with your practical working experiences – employers love examples where you show that you can do the job.

"A good recruiter will help you bring the best out of your achievements and in doing so help you create a strong CV."