The Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) has revealed the figures for graduate vacancies are set to increase by 16.4 per cent: the highest increase in 10 years.

However, these figures comes as slightly worse news for employers, with two thirds anticipating not enough graduates will be applying for their job vacancies.

In the AGR's bi-annual survey many employers stated their fears of a lack of applications with sufficient skills and graduates becoming increasingly selective about the industry they want to work in.
Despite the increase in vacancies, those seeking graduate recruitment are being warned that competition is still fierce.

Carl Gilleard, chief executive of ARG advised students not to delay if they wanted to beat the competition.

"You must start applying straight away and make sure that you prepare your applications carefully to ensure you market yourself well," he said.

Thinking ahead is especially important as UK graduates are facing growing rivalry from overseas graduates. A quarter of recruiters are now marketing their UK vacancies overseas in the search to recruit the best.

With this increasing pressure to present yourself as the best around, it is perhaps unsurprising that many people's CVs are crawling with lies and embellishments.

In a study by The Risk Advisory Group of more than 3,800 CVs submitted last year it was found that 50 per cent contained discrepancies.
Fictitious qualifications, inaccurate academic and employment dates and the omission of County Court Judgments are just some of the discrepancies that appeared on many people's CVs.

People lying on CVs may not come as surprising news but it is certainly on the increase, with people aged between 36 and 40 being the worst offenders in 2007.

Job hunters are being warned with this escalating appearance of lies and exaggerations on more and more people's CVs, employers are becoming increasingly keen to check data.

This is an area businesses have to become much wiser in due to the serious risks hiring someone under false pretensions could have for a company.

Although not all CV discrepancies are serious enough to cause companies harm, with many being simple errors of omission, Sal Remtulla, of The Risk Advisory Group, said a significant number in the study were more serious including "bankruptcies, criminal convictions or even fraud against previous employers."


This story is from the University of Sheffield's student paper, the Steel Press. Visit their webpage for more stories.