Lies Employers Tell You During Job Interviews

Finding a job has never been easy, but in recent years the process has turned into a dystopian nightmare . Preparing to find a new position requires planning that once amounted to military campaigns, and the sheer volume of video interviews, live projects, and other work required of you before you get an offer is exhausting and offers many ways to screw up and ruin your chances.

Worst of all, candidates are often not treated very well. It’s one thing to be scammed by a potential employer – even after multiple interviews. But what if you find that recruiters and hiring managers have blatantly lied to you throughout the entire process?

Just like the police, who are allowed to lie to you during an interrogation , recruiters and hiring managers can say whatever they want . This is due to two main facts: most job seekers are reluctant to challenge anything during an interview for fear of missing out on an opportunity, and it is difficult to hold an employer accountable for deceit that is a little vague and hard to pinpoint, and easy to write off as a misunderstanding.

However, knowledge is power, so knowing what a potential employer might lie about during an interview is half the battle. Here are the most common things a hiring manager or recruiter might lie about during an interview:

• Salary and benefits. Perhaps the most shocking thing that employers will outright lie about is your compensation and benefits. These cheats usually involve some tricky math, such as assuming the top of the salary range to be the base salary, only to show later that your experience level qualifies you for a much lower point in that range. Another common scam is to include theoretical overtime or bonuses in a way that makes it look like part of the base salary. Employers also often describe their benefit packages using nonsense words like “competitive” or “reliable” or by focusing on one aspect of benefits that is legitimately impressive while ignoring how weak the rest is. The key here is to ask specific, detailed questions and do more research . You can even reach out to current and former employees in similar roles to see if they’re willing to talk about their experiences in terms of compensation and benefits.
• Keeping your resume “on file”. While it’s true that companies are generally required to keep records of their recruiting efforts , including the pile of resumes they’ve put together, it’s also a common thing from a recruiter or hiring manager. This is a soft rejection that implies that they believe you have a future with their organization, when in fact they will forget you exist once they hit send on that email. Your best strategy is to ignore it and act like it’s not true – if they’re not lying, there’s nothing wrong with that.
• “I don’t want to take up too much of your time. Companies are known to not give a damn about your time when you are looking for a job. Numerous interviews over several weeks, complex projects that often look like you’re being scammed for free professional advice – the whole process screams, “We really don’t care about your time.” This sudden concern for your precious time is a lie to cover up the fact that they just decided you weren’t the right fit for the position. Move on and don’t expect more.
• “We haven’t made a hiring decision yet.” It’s a fact that companies often post “phantom jobs” that don’t actually exist . It’s also a fact that sometimes you’re only interviewed to cover up the fact that the company has already decided who they want for a particular role, or may have already hired someone for it. If a company is only using you to give the impression that it did its research before choosing a pre-prepared candidate, it will definitely lie to you about it.
• “You can work from home.” Remote work is controversial these days. Some companies know that their potential employees want at least some kind of hybrid scenario that allows them to work from home for a while, but they firmly believe that it’s just so you can ” steal time ” a little and take a nap. while earning a salary. . For some companies, the answer is to simply lie to you and tell you that the job is partially or completely remote, or that you only have to come into the office X days a week, and then tell you otherwise once you do. already spent a lot of time trying to consolidate the position.