Job applications and resumes have a single purpose: to get the candidate an interview. It's asking for trouble to make an employment offer solely on the basis of written qualifications. You want to meet the person and have the opportunity to ask questions about his or her qualifications. Many people, particularly those who apply for technical or organizational jobs, have backgrounds and experiences that make for interesting conversation. There also is nothing like the “eyeball factor” to help you gauge how well someone might fit into the work group you supervise.

But intuition is sometimes a faulty barometer. The sad truth is that more people than not lie on their resumes and on job applications. They may inflate their experience and qualifications or leave out less favorable details. Sometimes the misrepresentations have honorable intentions, such as the person who claims a college degree while still completing the last few credits. People may fudge employment dates to cover extended periods of unemployment, even when those periods occurred for reasons that would not harm their chances at future jobs.

Employment experts urge prospective employers to consistently check references to make sure at least the facts are correct. Many companies — and yours might be among them — are reluctant to do more than confirm of dates of employment and job titles, but most will at least do that as such information is purely factual. Mismatches tell you that the person has either made a significant error or outright lied. Such actions are cause for immediate termination should the person make it past the hiring stage. When the lie is significant, it is difficult for it to escape detection for very long as the person's inability to perform the tasks becomes apparent.