Interviews: Is it OK to lie at job interviews?

Elisa Moolecherry: We all know that looking for a job is very hard work. If you make it to the interview, you want to look and sound your best. But… is your best good enough? What happens if you... stretch the truth a little. Some people say companies expect you to lie about some things. Others say you should emphasize your strengths, and that employers will be impressed by your honesty. What do people in the US think? Business Spotlight correspondent Talitha Linehan asked people in Los Angeles: “Is it OK to lie in a job interview?”

• Absolutely. You just have to. Corporations are there. They’re designed to get the most out of you for the least amount of money and that’s particularly what I’m talking about, is when you’re talking about wages. They’re always asking you about your employment history and how much you’ve earned. And they use that as a sort of negotiating tool for how much they’re going to undercut you. And nowadays, like my husband, he took a 20 per cent pay cut in this really bad economy. So if he switched jobs right now and if he told them the truth about how much he made right now, then he would be seeing 20 per cent less than what he should be at. And actually he should be at 30 per cent more because he didn’t even get the raises over the last couple of years that he should have, so. … So, if it  gets you the job, then your performance is really what’s going to keep you in the job. So what the hell?

• I think lying is a common and effective strategy but totally unacceptable. And the more prestigious the job, the more likely you will to be caught and the worse it reflects on you as a potential job candidate. So there’s a big difference I think between spinning your resume to highlight your strengths and outright lying. One is a reasonable and expected part of selling yourself and the other is simply wrong.

• I would say normally I’m a pretty ethical person and I would say that it’s not OK to lie on job interviews. However, my sister was just in a situation in which she had to be faced with the question of whether or not she should lie. She was pregnant but not yet showing and she was a teacher and was applying for jobs on the teaching market, which are very hard to get. The question was would she lie to get the job or if she told them she was pregnant and they knew she was going to go out on maternity leave, she wouldn’t get the job and they would discriminate against her. And so she did.
  

Elisa: I’m not lying when I say I’d like to hear more views. You’ll find them in Business Spotlight magazine and audio 2/2010. Visit our website at www.business-spotlight.de for a new podcast next Tuesday!