LinkedIn has come to become the holy grail for job seekers and employers, but not all is as it seems. A poll by LendEDU has uncovered what we call suspected: exaggerated profiles, non-existent skill-sets and incorrect dates of employment.
From the Polls
LendEDU, in its poll, asked a range of respondents pertinent questions about LinkedIn. And the result? About 34 per cent of 1252 respondents revealed lying ‘to some degree’ on their profiles. An astonishing 11% said that their profile is ‘almost entirely made up’. If we extrapolate that to the 810 million members of LinkedIn that’s 89 million disastrous recruitment decisions to avoid.
Specifically, 55% say that “skills” is one of their biggest deceptions. In another survey ‘Monster Future of Work’ survey 60% said that they had a ‘mastery of skills’ that they only had basic knowledge of. Either exaggeration or plain invention it’s a nightmare for recruiters and a waste of everyone’s time as truth inevitably reveals itself, either in an embarrassing end to the interview or worse on the first day of the job.
The second worst porky-pie are in the dates of work experience where 26 per cent (in the LendEDU survey) of those asked said that they lie or exaggerate and more than half in the ‘Monster Future of Work’ survey said they said they worked at some jobs longer in order to omit an employer.
Here’s where we can help. Download Blaber and check whether a previous employer tells a different story. Employers globally are reporting actual dates of employment for their employees, past and present. No more absconding and then just keeping the current employer as-is on LinkedIn. until another job is found. No more getting fired and then eliminating that employer from LinkedIn.
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