Job vacancies – On your CV, honesty is the best policy
Are you looking for job vacancies? One of the first steps to securing employment is creating an awesome CV. If you’re wondering if lying on your CV is a good idea or not, the answer is easy. Don’t do it! The negative consequences of lying to prospective employers are not worth taking the risk.
If you want to have the highest chance of finding the right job opportunities, you’ll need a professional and accurate CV. When you have one, the next step is to upload your CV to Job Mail and to use our handy job finder.
While creating a CV that highlights your strengths, skills, and job experience is a good idea, it is advisable to ensure that you only include accurate information. With an unemployment rate of 25.5% in South Africa, it is easy to see why people are desperate to find job opportunities. Take a look at our blog to discover why it’s beneficial to keep what you put on your CV as honest and truthful as possible.
1. Peace of mind in knowing you won’t receive questions you can’t answer
Applying for job vacancies and attending interviews is stressful enough when you’re telling the truth. Don’t put yourself under more pressure by setting yourself up to answer questions you don’t have the qualifications or experience to deal with. If you tell the truth right from the start, you will come off as honest and reliable in the interview, which are traits that prospective employers are looking for.
2. It can be damaging to your professional reputation
Lying on CV is likely to have a negative impact on your professional reputation as well as your career. Companies are looking for reliable employees they can trust. If you’re deceiving your employer from the start, you have broken their trust right from the beginning. Even if they don’t discover your fraudulent activities, it’s likely that your performance will not meet their expectations if you don’t have the skills and qualifications that were listed on your CV. Poor performance can jeopardise your career progress as well as your reputation. The South African Fraud Prevention Service maintains a database of people who have committed qualifications fraud and this information is shared with member organisations.
3. More and more companies do extensive background screenings
The high rate of qualifications fraud in South Africa has resulted in local companies becoming extra vigilant. Research shows that over the last five years there has been a 200% increase in the number of people who have lied about their qualifications to prospective employers. In these cases, background checks exposed the people who were lying on CVs. Not only is qualifications fraud a local concern, it is also a rising global issue.
4. If you are appointed, you will be expected to do the work. If you lied, you can be fired within your probation period
If you upload CV documents online that are fraudulent, you are setting yourself up for failure. Whether your lies are discovered at the job interview or once you’re hired, the outcome will have negative consequence on your career. If you get through the interview successfully, you will be expected to perform tasks using the skills and qualifications that you listed on your CV. Many employees ask for a probation period first, and if you aren’t able to meet their expectations, you can be fired during this period.
5. If you forged documents, you could be in major legal trouble
There are a variety of strategies that constitute as qualifications fraud. As discussed, the simplest form of qualifications fraud is when people list a degree on their CV that they never received in the first place. Another tactic that job candidates have been caught using involves changing the results that they received for the subjects they studied at university. Either way, if you’ve forged documents, it can result in legal troubles, which have far-reaching consequences. If you’ve landed yourself in trouble with the law, it will be even harder to find job vacancies than if you were just honest in the first place.
Now that you know more about the importance of writing an accurate and truthful CV, you can look for job vacancies online. With a range of job opportunities to choose from, you are sure to find one that matches your skills and qualifications.
Awesomeness indeed.
Thank you.