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...and I invented velcro

Photo by Topham/The Image Works

By Dan Macsai

...and I invented velcro

Job applicants are stretching the truth less frequently but more creatively these days. Of 3,000 hiring managers recently polled online by CareerBuilder.com, 49% (down from 57% in 2006) said they had uncovered a lie on a résumé. Most of the discrepancies they found were pretty standard: Candidates exaggerated their job responsibilities (38%) and skills (18%), listed academic degrees they hadn’t earned (10%), and inflated their job titles (5%). Harris Interactive, which conducted the survey, also asked about the “most unusual” lies the managers encountered. A sampling: using someone else’s photo on a résumé, claiming membership in Mensa, listing a degree from a nonexistent school, and pretending to be part of the Kennedy clan