A new report from Monster has reignited a familiar debate: more than a quarter of workers admit to fudging the truth on their CV. But when we dug into the research on both sides of the Atlantic, the honest picture is more nuanced, and more useful for anyone job hunting right now, than a single headline stat suggests.
Here is what the data actually shows, why it is happening, and what to do instead if you are tempted to round up.
The US picture: 1 in 4 admit to bending the truth
Monster’s Resume Confessions research found that 27% of workers say they have knowingly included something inaccurate on a resume to improve their chances of getting hired. More tellingly, 37% said they would exaggerate something to land their dream role if they were confident they would never be caught.
Most of these “white lies” are fairly modest. In the Monster sample, 22% had made their responsibilities sound more impressive and 11% had inflated their skills or experience. A smaller group went further: 8% adjusted employment dates, 5% changed a job title outright, and 2% claimed more credit for a project than they were due.
Nearly six in ten respondents (59%) still say a CV should always be completely truthful, which tells you this is not really a values gap. It is a pressure gap. When people believe the process itself is not entirely straight, honesty starts to feel optional.
Why the pressure is building
- Ghost jobs and postings that are never filled
- Rounds of AI-driven resume screening before a human ever sees an application
- Longer hiring processes with more interview stages
- A belief, rightly or wrongly, that “everyone else is doing it”
The UK picture looks different, and worth knowing if you’re job hunting here
The Monster research is US-based, so we went looking for the UK equivalent. A July 2026 survey of 1,004 UK adults by StandOut CV found that almost half (46.3%) admit to lying on their CV at some point, with one in five (19.9%) saying they have done it more than once.
The areas where UK candidates stretch the truth differ slightly from the US pattern. Skills top the list at 52.3%, followed by previous work experience (43.4%) and job titles (37.9%). Salary history, software or equipment experience, and even school or college qualifications also feature, though far less often.
UK CV honesty at a glance (StandOut CV, July 2026)
| What people lie about | % who admit it |
|---|---|
| Skills | 52.3% |
| Previous work experience | 43.4% |
| Job titles | 37.9% |
| Software or equipment experience | 26.5% |
| Salary at previous jobs | 20.4% |
Source: StandOut CV, “How many Brits lie on CVs and job interviews in 2026?”
Interestingly, men were considerably more likely than women to admit to lying on a CV (55.9% versus 39%), and millennials aged 35 to 44 were the most likely generation to own up to it. Boomers were the least likely, with nearly two-thirds saying they had never lied on a CV at all.
What actually happens if you get caught
This is the part most people underestimate. Among UK respondents who admitted to lying and were caught, almost half (47.9%) faced no consequences at all. But for the rest, the outcomes were far from trivial: 22.5% had a job offer withdrawn, 8.5% were dismissed from the role, and a further 7% said it damaged their professional reputation. In rare cases, dishonesty on a CV has been treated as fraud under UK law, with a maximum sentence of up to 10 years, although prosecutions remain uncommon.
The lesson is not “you’ll definitely get away with it” or “you’ll definitely get caught.” It is that the downside, when it lands, tends to be disproportionate to the upside of the original exaggeration.
Where AI fits into all of this
Both studies point to AI as a growing factor in CV honesty, from two different angles. In the US, workers increasingly use AI tools to draft or polish their resumes, which can blur the line between “professional phrasing” and outright invention if used carelessly. In the UK, over a third of respondents (34%) said they had used AI at least once during the hiring process, with over two in five (43.6%) saying they still consider AI use in hiring to be dishonest, even though it has become common.
Where UK opinion is more settled is on the extremes. Only 20.1% think using AI purely to correct spelling and grammar is acceptable, and just 1.8% think it is acceptable to use AI to invent skills or experience outright, despite over half of CV liars admitting that inflated skills were exactly what they lied about. In other words, most people already know where the line sits. The gap is between knowing it and holding it under pressure.
Four ways to stand out without stretching the truth
None of this means the answer is to shrug and exaggerate anyway. Recruiters consistently point to the same handful of strategies that outperform embellishment, because they address the actual problem (getting noticed and shortlisted) rather than papering over it.
1. Mirror the job description, honestly
Most employers still rely on some form of automated screening before a human reviewer sees your CV. Using the same terminology as the job posting, where it genuinely reflects your experience, helps you get past that first filter without inventing anything.
2. Cut the buzzwords, add the evidence
Vague self-descriptions like “dynamic individual” or “strong communicator” do nothing for you, because they are unverifiable and every other applicant is using them too. Replace them with a specific example and, ideally, a number: what you did, the scale of it, and the result.
3. Apply to fewer roles, more precisely
Career coaches increasingly advise quality over quantity, aiming for 15 to 20 genuinely well-matched applications rather than a high-volume scattergun approach. Tailoring takes time, but it consistently converts better than sheer application volume.
4. Let your network do some of the talking
A well-tailored CV paired with a genuine connection to the recruiter or hiring manager, for example via LinkedIn, tends to carry more weight than an inflated title or skill ever will. You do not need to invent credibility when you can build it.
The bottom line
The data from both the US and UK tells a consistent story: most professionals believe honesty matters, most feel real pressure to bend it anyway, and the actual risk of getting caught, while real, is unevenly distributed. The more useful question is not “will I get away with it” but “is there a version of my genuine experience that already makes the case for me, if I present it properly.” For most candidates, there is.
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