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LinkedIn Profiles Contain Fewer Lies Than Resumes
RichDiesal writes "New research reveals that personal information provided on LinkedIn may contain fewer deceptions about prior work experience and prior work responsibilities than traditional resumes. However, LinkedIn profiles contain more deceptions about personal interests and hobbies. This researchers believe this may be because participants are equally motivated to deceive employers in both settings, but perceive lies about work experience on LinkedIn as more easily verifiable."
my linkedin has me working at aperture science as a research facilitator and a security guard at black mesa
Reagan said it best: Trust, but verify.
but perceive lies about work experience on LinkedIn as more easily verifiable
You can't verify a lie. You can only verify whether something *is* a lie. Insert comment whining about Slashdot's editors.
Even it were true, folks who were checking up on you would find folks linked to you and well to make a long story short, eventually they'd find out the truth.
Then you'd be known for the bullshitter that you are.
A resume is typically viewed by an employer so the incentive is to be honest about hobbies and lie about experience.
LinkedIn is typically viewed by friends and acquaintances so the incentive is to be honest about work and lie about hobbies.
Nothing terribly profound.
Get more spam from there than I ever got on or from YooHoo. Now that is bad right there, I don't care who you are. (apologies to Larry)
Although not a lie per se, what does checking a box labeled "Troubleshooting" mean in the context of an automation engineer? I've been at this since 2003 and have seen a *wide* range of troubleshooting skills both high and low. LinkedIn encourages everyone to go ahead and check that box. So while it isn't full of lies, I believe is full of exceedingly watered down truths.
Since LinkedIn is there, it has become much more tricky to lie on a resume because there is always the possibility that the recipient of the lies stumble upon the discrepancies.
So for the last year or so, whenever I have to send a resume I simply send the PDF that I can get from my LinkedIn profile. And if I have to lie (like hiding my VB6 experience or the fact that I used to work for Enron), I do it on LinkedIn.
lucm, indeed.
It's a basic principal of crowdsourcing. Call it the Resume wiki-effect
---Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A START
LinkedIn profiles probably contain more accurate info because you're still connected to past employers and co-workers, many who you may look to for endorsements. I believe the guilt of lying or embellishing and having your former peers and bosses see it is enough for most to avoid doing it. I once had a former co-worker request an endorsement from me. After reading through their profile I couldn't do it. Not only did they lie about their experience but much of the experience they claimed to have matched real experience I possess. So I'd be endorsing their fake work experience and building up a potential competitor for future jobs.
You can say "I worked there" but its harder to get a bunch of other people to say the same, especially people with active profiles.
I trust a LinkedIn reference more when a person has several links to people who also worked there.
I heard someone say the looked at candidates' "net tracks". They looked for forum contributions, blog entries, Google results, etc.
Nobody really believes the stuff on linkedin will be checked.
We used to look at our former coworkers profiles and laugh. Sure, they're full of exaggerations, lies, etc. The problem with verifying them is that most employers have a strict policy that they will only verify the start and end dates an employee worked, nothing else. In some places it's the law, in other places they just don't want lawsuits from former employees. And in some cases, they're just hoping that their biggest competitor hires the t*rd and ends up costing them a bundle.
If someone called, there was no way we would say "that's a lie." We would confirm only the duration of employment, say that they left with no hard feelings, we wish them the best in their new endeavors, thank you very much have a nice day click!
There's nothing to stop a dozen people creating fake linkedin profiles, as well as a phony website (what - $8 a year?) and giving each other references.
They want to call head office? A burn phone is $25 a month. Split the cost among the dozen and it's $2 a month each. Or just list your former employer as a recent corporate bankruptcy - there's enough of them around.
Faxes? "We don't do faxes - what is this, the stone age?" Create the head office in some area far enough away, and all they can do is google earth it.
"But if the employer finds out, they can fire you!" ... so what - in the meantime, you have a job. And they won't even bother if you list a bankrupt biz no longer in operation as your former employer.
To paraphrase Tennyson:
I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better* to have had a job and lost
Than never to have had a job at all.
*or at least more profitable.
Now, would I lie? Are you kidding? The truth is awesome* enough :-p
*disclamer: chocolate required for proper functioning. valid for some very non-standard value(s) of "awesome." ymmv. batteries not included. avoid elevators, operating heavy machinery, and slashdot. seek professional advice if non-professional advice doesn't work. ignore previous sentence as it is non-professional advice. all rights reserved. parking reserved. reservations reserved. Why yes, I do have reservations, serious reservations, but everyone here else seems to think this place is good enough to eat at.
Let's call it what it is, Anti-Social Media.
I had a grad student last year who stopped showing up after the first few weeks, and eventually had his studentship discontinued.
Being a student here gave him an email address here and one at a university with which we had a collaborative arrangement.
While he had it, he created a LinkedIn profile listing himself as a "Research Scientist" here and a "Software Development Consultant" at the other university. He then proceeded to connect through LinkedIn with others who work at both organisations who didn't know him, but who probably thought they should, given the relevant email address and link requests. He was careful not to try to link this fraudulent account with anyone who did know him and his real position here.
The profile is still there. I don't know whether it is to protect his ego (he seems to have problems in that area) or whether he is using it to fraudulently get consulting contracts. Guess I should do something about it, but I don't want to stir up trouble.
The beauty of something meant as a social tool. If you have colleagues friends etc attached to your profile they'll call out your "inaccuracies" vs a one time submitted resume that only the hiring company sees. Sure they can check each one of your references. How many do? How many drill down low enough to confirm that you really did use Cassandra as your data store and played with REST interfaces? I suspect that a lot of the reference checks are pretty much:
1) Did Bob work there from X to Y as a "developer"?
2) Would you recommend Bob?
In the aftermath of an acrimonious divorce, someone pointed out my ex-wife's Linkedin profile. (I don't do social networking of any kind, so I never see nor go looking for these sorts of things.) Said ex-wife was an unemployed/underemployed "small business owner" with a penchant for dishonesty. For some time on Linkedin, she'd been listing the fictitious "John Smith Construction" (with my name in place of the obvious) as her employer, with "owner/wife" as her position. Yeesh.
Karma: Excellent, but still won't get you laid.
Although people can game the system, at least there is a system. It is certainly better than just trusting a piece of paper.
(If at first you don't succeed, do it different next time!)
I am on the "interview" team at work (interviewing candidates,) and I usually try to search for each applicant on LinkedIn, etc. I have noticed that when job titles differ from resume to LinkedIn, they are almost uniformly less-inflated on LinkedIn. (One applicant's resume read as almost completely different than their LinkedIn history - it even took effort to realize that the LinkedIn profile showed the contract agency, with the client company in the small print, while the resume showed only the client company, in nearly every job.)
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
The purpose of that site was not known.
It's good to know I've failed at life, then.
The next thing you're going to say is if I'm on facebook/myspace/aol instant messenger/apple computers/etc I've failed at life.
LOL
-- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
Facebook profiles contain as many lies as matchmaking website profiles.
For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
And some times it's to get past HR / non tech mangers who post jobs.
With stuff like 5 years in X even when it just came out.
We want thoroughly know the ins and outs of a os still in a beta / preview with the line of (it may only be less than a week old, but we still want it....) and why would a office want to jump into a new OS that fast any ways much less one still in beta.
A big skills list that seems more like a list of 2-3 jobs mixed into one big list.
Stuff like top-tier university for IT jobs when tech schools / community college tech IT skills that are needed for the job. Also there is a lot in IT that you can learn on your own and learn alot more in the same time to get a CS degree. CS = IT is not true.
This is what it is like to hang out with very smart people. You dont lie about shit because chances are someone in earshot can call you on it. Nice to have this applies to the stupids too.
I've failed at failing. Really really badly.
This signature has Super Cow Powers
What about those of us who have the same information on their resume as on LinkedIn? :D
As for why LinkedIn has a higher truthiness rating? Community. Your friends and acquaintances will keep you honest, and the embarrassment of not being who you say you are publicly will be enough to keep most people on the (relative) straight and narrow.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
In the early days of LinkedIn I connected with the director of small R&D team I worked with years before. This individual went on to become a well known executive in the industry we worked in. Based merely on this connection I get frequent InMail connection requests from companies looking for executive level personnel. If these people bothered read my profile it would be readily apparent that I have neither the desire or experience required for such a position. An unscrupulous person in my situation could quite possibly make a quick buck, although it would likely be a career ending move to do so.
I've never lied in an Application Form, CV or Resume.
Ever.
Not once.
Been unemployed for ages.
I will not give in to the tide of deceit.
I still have to take skill tests to see if a certification or skill is actually usable.
nosig today
...then I wonder what people are reporting on their CV. I don't use Linkedin at all, but I could find there the profiles of many people I know. I was astonished to see how many lies they were reporting about their professional skills. Probably the most appaling profile was that posted by an ex-friend: he claimed that he worked in R&D for a chemical industry (he actually was a secretary, doing about 10,000 photocopies/day), is an inventor (never filed a patent), etc. His currently claims to be a security consultant for an university. I wonder what he is actually doing there...
I also noticed that the most skilled people I know neither have a Linkedin profile, nor they waste their time on Facebook. I think it does not happen by chance...
On Linked-In you are guaranteed to get your details peer-reviewed. Unless your peers want to support your lies you're going to have to write something that's close to the truth. So this appears to be another piece of pointless research and hardly news worthy enough for SlashDot.
Sigs. We don't need no steenking sigs.
I wondered why I was not getting ahead in the world. I don't lie in LinkedIn or on resumes and I assumed nobody else did either.
At least I still have one advantage over everybody else. I only have to remember one version of my story.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Seriously, If you are on LinkedIn then you have failed at life
Go back to Farmville, you moron.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
I put facebook, myspace, and linkedin in the same boat. Some people put up stuff they want you to see. If that stuff is true or not is a different story.
From a given job record. This kind of check up is easier to do than pre-social software days. Linked-in does carge a hefty fee to send messages to non-links.
Then I guess somemone could create a whole slew of fake co-workers and links to game this method.
I used to work with a graphic designer, who eventually got his MBA and was given the chance to do some project management while he was attending evening classes. We lost touch over the years, but I was looking at his profile recently. Apparently, rather than doing graphic design and getting a chance to dabble in project management, he was the head of the IT Development Department. This position was almost 10 years ago, but he probably used this lie to as he was making his switch-over.
I know LinkedIn has tools to recommend people, but do they have tools to call people out for lying? And then do you engage in a lie-war? i.e., My online profile is accurate, but if I were to call him out, what is to prevent him from starting to try to protect his image and claim stuff on my profile is inaccurate as retaliation?
In the grand scheme of things, it's so old now that no one would care any more, but still kind of bugs me.
If all you have are silver bullets, everything looks like a werewolf.
on most of the forums?? go on over to c++, java, opengl, android, iOS groups etc.... look at the topic questions, jobs available. does this mean that people part of these groups that are americans just choose not to interact much in this area and just choose to have their linkedin profile and nothing more? i joined a lot of these groups hoping to maybe join in some good conversations but all it is, is a bunch of noob topics filled with jobs in india.
This researchers believe this may be because participants are equally motivated to deceive employers in both settings, but perceive lies about work experience on LinkedIn as more easily verifiable
Maybe, but I believe it's more likely that participants are customizing their resumè to fit the job posting and not bothering to update their online profiles (which would be difficult to do if said participant is applying for several jobs).
Yeah, makes sense. I'm sure nobody had thought of this before........