They said what?
In a time when nearly half of Gen Z lies on their job applications — it’s no surprise that they’re also fibbing on their resume to land a job.
While many Americans are riding the unemployed bus, one TikTokker claimed that the trick is to just Pinocchio your way into an interview. In other words: Lie about your skillset on your resume.
In today’s tough job market, many feel they have to lie their way into landing a job. ijeab – stock.adobe.com“You’re losing to people like me who are making s–t up,” the content creator said in a TikTok video with almost 45,000 views.
“I’ve been job searching lately and I have to be honest, it’s going pretty well because not one word on my resume is true. It’s all f—ing made up.”
Many in the comment section agreed.
“Be your own references and see if they figure it out.”
“Best jobs I ever got were all based on lies lies lies.”
“Got a job after 5 months of searching. Whole resume is basically a lie. Got my degree years ago and but after I graduated I never worked in jobs related to my field so I just added fake jobs to my resume at small/mid companies local to my area related to my degree field and said I worked there. Tons of applications and interviews and got a job offer a few weeks ago and now I have a career lol.”
This TikTokker isn’t the only one to supposedly fabricate his way into a job — many Gen Zers are following suit.
Younger generations are notorious for lying on job applications and resumes. Jirapong – stock.adobe.comSurvey data from career.io, a career services platform, revealed that one in four job applications have lied or provided inaccurate information when applying for jobs.
Forty-seven percent of those participants are the generation born between 1997 and 2012, while almost 39% of millennials are also guilty of it.
Of course, the older generations are more truthful — only 20.4% of Gen Xers have admitted to doing this and only 9.4% of baby boomers told a white lie about themselves to leave the unemployed life.
Completely falsifying your resume or job application is never a good idea. However, according to Bonnie Dilber, a recruiting manager from Seattle, Washington, there are a few things on which you can bend the truth.
“If you’re leaving your job because you really dislike it, because you don’t get along with your boss or your colleagues — you’re going to lie about this,” she said in a viral TikTok video.
“Please do not tell them that your boss doesn’t like you. Don’t tell them that everyone is really hard to work with,” the expert said. “All they’re going to hear is that you are difficult.”
Instead, Dilber recommends saying something along the lines of: “Things are going great, but I want to take on bigger challenges.”
