They might almost be choosing some of their "qualifications" at random—but in a tight job market in which employers struggle to separate the wheat from the chaff, some would-be candidates actually do a superb job of self-disqualification. So finds a new CareerBuilder survey, which finds that 75 percent of human resource managers choosing resumes to submit to hiring managers have caught candidates in a lie. "Some resumes," says CareerBuilder, "were just not believable at all." Related: Are you spending too much time reading resumes? Some of the problems with candidate resumes are so outrageous one wonders if they can even be classified as self-sabotage, or whether they would better qualify as spectacularly failed attempts to prove that truth is stranger than fiction—candidates claiming all sorts of qualifications that extend far beyond exaggeration and enter the territory of blatant lies, for instance. The pressure to grab a hiring manager's attention is high, and perhaps that spurs some of these resume disasters. Outrageousness tends to play a role likely because, according to the report, 39 percent of hiring managers spend less than a minute evaluating a resume, and 23 percent linger less than 30 seconds. That could have spurred the 22-year-old candidate who claimed to hold three different degrees—unless, of course, said candidate was related to Sheldon Cooper, in which case all bets might be off. But then there was the applicant who listed 40 different jobs in a single year—giving new meaning to the term "job-hopping"—and the overly optimistic grocery store shelf stocker who applied to be a physician. One perhaps sought to be remarked on for honesty by listing "an extensive arrest history," while yet another might have envisioned him/herself as a "player"—claiming to have "as many marriages as jobs." One sent a full credit application for an apartment instead of the resume that should have been attached to the email, while another was channeling their inner W. C. Fields by declaring at the bottom of the resume that they "do not like babies or puppies." Trying to project ruthlessness, perhaps thinking they were applying for company hatchetman? It may be a hot job market, but applicants shouldn't assume that it's hot enough that a pants-on-fire resume will get their foot in the door.
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