Not every lie on a CV belongs to the candidate. Typically, 60% of the CVs we check carry at least one discrepancy. In our verification team's experience, most of those discrepancies are the candidate's own work, and a few are put there by somebody else.

Here is how a discrepancy ends up on a CV without the candidate putting it there, in a pattern our verification team has seen over the years.

A recruitment agency puts a candidate forward for a job. The agency sends the employer the candidate's CV, set out in the agency's own template with the agency's logo at the top. The agency CV says the candidate has a 2:1, the class of degree many UK employers ask for.

The employer sends the agency CV to us. We put the agency CV side by side with what the candidate declares on our screening form, and we check the degree against the university's own records.

On the form the candidate declares a 2:2, one class lower than the agency CV says. Our report flags the difference to the employer. The university confirms the 2:2.

The candidate is telling the truth, and the employer wants to know who is not. The employer asks the candidate for the CV they first sent the agency, before the agency put it into its own template. The candidate's own copy says 2:2 as well.

The degree class changed when the CV changed hands. The candidate never saw the version the employer read, and the change came from the party least suspected in the whole process, the agency.

The lesson is not the 2:1. The candidate's original CV shows the change at a glance, and the original is the one document nobody in the process is using.

The employer has never been sent the original. We are sent the agency's version, which has replaced the original. The candidate, the person with the most to lose, is the only one holding the document that settles the question, and nobody has asked for it.

The same can happen to a job title, a date or a line of responsibilities, on a page the candidate never approved. A title raised a level, or a date moved to close a gap, is found the same way when the past employer is asked. Universities have seen the same risk from the candidate's side. The University of Cambridge Careers Service tells its students that once a CV has gone to an agency, "Your CV may be rewritten (possibly inaccurately) before being sent out."

Why might an agency change a CV?

An agency that alters what a candidate has told it is the exception. Many agencies present a candidate's experience more clearly than the candidate did, or tailor the CV to the role. An employer still cannot assume that the CV it receives from an agency is the document the candidate wrote.

Agencies have honest reasons to change a CV. The branded template tells the employer which agency introduced the candidate, and the paragraph at the top is openly a sales pitch. The agency may have reformatted the candidate's own CV or built the document from scratch from what the candidate supplied.

An agency also has an interest of its own. It is paid when its candidate is placed, and a candidate with a stronger CV is easier to place.

Andrew Fennell, founder of the CV-writing firm StandOut CV, draws the line for recruiters on the recruitment site The Undercover Recruiter. In his words: "The experience and qualifications a candidate entered should not be adjusted, but elements such as formatting or highlighting key strengths are acceptable changes." He also tells recruiters to ask the candidate's permission before changing anything.

Both UK recruitment trade bodies bind their members to the same rule. The Recruitment and Employment Confederation, the REC, requires in its Code of Professional Practice that a member "shall not knowingly make a false or inaccurate statement, fail to disclose a material fact, or make a representation as to future matters without having reasonable grounds for making it" when representing a candidate.

The Association of Professional Staffing Companies, APSCo, uses near-identical words in its Code of Conduct. Its members "shall not knowingly make a false or inaccurate statement, mislead or otherwise allow those with whom it deals to operate with a false impression". Both codes bind members only, and not every agency is a member.

What candidates change themselves

Most of the discrepancies we find are the candidate's own. Some leave a job off the form that is on their CV, usually because they decide the job is not relevant to the new role. Some stretch the dates on the CV to cover a gap. Some move a grade or a degree class up a notch to get the interview.

Our CV Comparison check puts the CV the employer received beside what the candidate declares on our form and reports the differences. An education check with the awarding body or an employment check with the past employer then settles which version is right. What no check can tell an employer is who made the change, and that is the question an agency CV adds.

Next steps for employers

Ask the agency for the candidate's original CV alongside the branded version, and keep both on file.
For each version, note when it arrived and who sent it. If a claim is queried later, the note shows where it came from. An applicant tracking system, the software many employers use to hold applications, keeps that record for you.
Treat the candidate's own declaration, on your application form or on a screening form, as the version they stand behind.
Verify every qualification with the awarding body and every recent employment with the employer, whichever CV the claim arrived on.
When the agency's CV and the candidate's declaration differ, ask who made the change before you decide what the difference means.
Find out from the agency whether the candidate saw the version you received.
Before you add an agency to your supplier list, explain how your screening works and ask whether the agency will work within it. An agency that understands why you check is the easier partner when a difference turns up.

Key sources

Verifile, "Verifile's review of 2022", 1 February 2023, 60% of CVs checked in 2022 carried at least one discrepancy. Read here
Verifile, "60% of job applicants have lied on their CV", 20 February 2020, the same rate in 2019. Read here
Recruitment and Employment Confederation, Code of Professional Practice, principle 2. Read here
Association of Professional Staffing Companies, Code of Conduct, Education Sector Group edition, October 2023, rule 2. Read here
University of Cambridge Careers Service, "Using recruitment agencies". Read here
The Undercover Recruiter, "Is It OK to Edit a Candidate's CV?", by Andrew Fennell. Read here