The End of Truth? (Not So Fast...)

In 1995, George Costanza, the constantly-scheming, but pathetically-inept character on the hit sitcom, Seinfeld, informed viewers, “it’s not a lie, if you believe it.” While critics often praised Seinfeld for being well-ahead of its time; they likely had no idea the show would provide insight into our society twenty years after ending its run. 

Maybe because 2017’s society took George’s words a little too seriously, truth in today’s mainstream culture is paradoxically in short supply. The Internet was supposed to provide us with instant access to the world’s information. Instead it is the most popular medium through which “fake news” travels. Twenty-four-hour television news networks boasted their coverage as the answer to an increasingly-connected population’s cravings for updates. Today, citizens enter the echo chamber and pick and choose which “facts” to accept from one of the partisan cable news networks.

It would be easy to maneuver this dearth of objective truth if it were limited to outright liars spreading easily-refuted falsehoods, but the reality is much more nuanced. Tech startups have suffered the consequences of utilizing unconventional financial metrics to inflate initial valuations.  Businesses regularly use analytics to deliberately conceal outlier statistics that affect the underlying numbers.

This concept goes beyond cooking statistics. Stephen Colbert has made quite a career out of his comical invention of "truthiness" - the idea that something is true because it feels like it should be, without need for, well, actual facts; and as is often the case, it’s funny because it’s true. In our society, the erosion of truth has grabbed hold of our collective consciousness. Seasoned professionals are taking advantage of an environment where they can boast “truthy” or “alternative” facts to suit their needs.

Many professionals only know this “new” reality. A 2015 survey from CareerBuilder.com found that 56% of hiring managers caught job candidates lying on their resumes. Applicants lied about the scope of their responsibilities, their education levels, and even working for companies that never employed them.  This presents a new challenge for employers when evaluating the pedigree, experience, and business of potential lateral hires; how do you verify subjective or “alternative” facts when your new hires believe that “shading” their reality to suit the role is perfectly acceptable?

Decipher analysts understand the challenges in finding the truth in today’s market. Facts are real. Facts matter. One proven method is to carry out thorough, independent, third-party due diligence to produce an objective assessment of the lateral candidate. Professional, independent, confidential third-party due diligence allows a firm to obtain the candid insights of clients, former colleagues, and market peers without risk to the hiring firm or the candidate. Actual facts. There’s no “alternative.”

Decipher: Real Intelligence. Better Hires. Every Time.