Lies, and the applicants who tell them ...
The chief exec of Radio Shack and James Frey are just the public faces for a larger trend of deception.
Questionable memoirs aside, lying about life experience is all too common, particularly in the corporate world.
A study released this week by ResumeDoctor.com, a national resume writing service based in Vermont, found that nearly 43 percent of resumes contained one or more significant inaccuracies or fabrications in dates of employment, job titles or education of applicants.
And almost 13 percent of the randomly selected resumes the site analyzed during a six-month period showed up two or more serious problems.
These weren't minor missteps, says Brad Fredericks, co-founder of ResumeDoctor.com.
Resumes where an applicant was off by a month on his dates of employment didn't count. But the ones on which someone claimed a degree he didn't have or used an incorrect title that made a previous job sound like something it wasn't were fair game.
Fredericks says these findings have serious implications for both applicants and employers.
"These are the three areas that job seekers are kind of misrepresenting, but these are the areas that are the easiest to verify," he says.
That means employers need to be more vigilant in making a few calls to check on their potential hires, Fredericks says. And applicants need to strive for complete accuracy in those areas.
After all, Fredericks says, "Somebody can and probably will find out if you're not telling the truth."