Research just out indicates that job applicants routinely lie in CVs and when attending interviews, but the ability to tell porkies does have its uses in the world of work.

According to the poll, by www.HireScores.com, the study found that fewer than 1 in 10 of the respondents, 8%, said they have ‘never’ lied in a job interview. The recruitment agency review site asked 1,218 people across the UK  what the top 10 most common lies told in job interviews are.

I’d rather hoped it might be “I was a sixer in the Bagshot wolf cubs troop” or “I have always dreamed of being a fast food outlet crew member” and “yes, I did scout Hampstead Heath on George Michael’s behalf”.  Alas and alack it was not to be so: the most common lie told in a job interview is the amount of money paid in a previous job cited by 67% of those polled.

Other common lies are as follows:

1. Grades or qualifications – 61%
2. Years of relevant experience – 58%
3. Reason for leaving previous roles – 54%
4. Commitment to career – 52%
5. Hobbies and interests – 49%
6. General skills – 44%
7. Responsibilities in previous jobs – 38%
8. Job titles in previous roles – 36%
9. Marital status – 32%

Lying about one’s marital status is common at orgies and parties but why it would be so at a job interview is puzzling.

Yet, lying obviously does have its place in the world of work. For example many years ago, whilst in a magazine management meeting, a publishing director told a hapless colleague who had the miserable task of selling display advertising that: “If you can’t tell lies you shouldn’t be in sales.” And how very true that it is.

One only has to look at estate agent descriptions to see that. Also, having laboured in the salt mines of journalism for many a year, I can assure anyone reading this that it’s commonplace for hacks to tell porkies in pursuit of some wretched story or other. Or, in the case of the News of the World’s fake sheik to adopt a disguise to hoodwink some twerp-ish celebrity into confessing all about their tawdry lifestyles and ambitions.

Really it is up to employers to tackle this issue and to be rather more rigorous when vetting potential employees and to set the truth bar high in the workplace. Applicants, desperate for an edge in difficult job markets can hardly be blamed for embellishing their achievements, or inventing the odd one. Of course, I draw a line at surgeons, doctors, dentists, child care staff and postmen who should never be recruited without thorough vetting.

But there are lies and there are lies. I recall a young man of dubious appearance hired as a display sales manager, a job that involved much coming and going in a new company car, who told the sales manager who hired him that “yes, I do have a clean and current driving licence”.

That held good until he was given the keys to a Vauxhall Astra and was forced to confess that he’d never had a driving lesson let alone held a valid licence. He did though wear a mohair suit – a sure sign of a bounder and a cad.  I’d have never hired him on those grounds alone.