Are your job candidates lying about their AI skill sets? Nearly half of job seekers, 45%, said they exaggerated their AI skills during the hiring process, according to a recent survey by ResumerBuilder.com.
About one-third of respondents, 32%, who had looked for a job over the past two years reported they exaggerated their AI skills on their résumés, and 30% said they lied during the interview process.
Yet their dishonesty may have turned the job search in their favor as 80% of those who lied during the hiring process were tapped for the job they applied for.
“People aren’t loyal to companies anymore, so lying likely seems like a risk worth taking to get a better title and paycheck,” Julia Toothacre, résumé and career strategist at ResumeBuilder.com, said in a press release. “Is that right? No. It calls into question the integrity of a person.”
Still, 48% of those who exaggerated their skills or experience during the job hunt reported they have not faced direct consequences; only 10% later found themselves fired while 40% experienced higher workloads.
Similar deception also exists among existing staff. About 65% of current office workers admitted to exaggerating their AI skills while at work, according to the study. When asked why they inflated their experience, 66% said they wanted to prove their job’s relevance, 49% said they wanted to appear smarter and 31% did so to get a raise.
This survey was commissioned by ResumeBuilder.com and conducted online by the survey platform Pollfish. It launched on Sept. 13, and 1,000 respondents completed the full survey.