The only thing going up faster than unicorn valuations these days is the collective title inflation across the social network of professional white lies, LinkedIn.

Where did this start?? Is this recruiter driven? Keeping up with the Joneses? Either way, trying to figure out who people really are and what they’ve actually accomplished is getting more treacherous than commuting up and down the 101.

For all the hiring managers out there swimming in resumes & profiles, here are 5 tried & true signs to spot inflators:

Sign #1: Removal of graduation year

• The first and best place to start. Scroll right down to the bottom of that LinkedIn profile and see if those grad year numbers are conspicuously absent
• Most saboteurs begin by attempting to disguise their true age / years of experience because…they’re likely short of the necessary experience for their next desired role
• Some other obscure reason that has never quite become apparent

Sign #2: Obscure awards & certificates

• Wow they went to Harvard?!? Oh, it’s an online certificate in data science from the Harvard extension school
• Employee of the month at their 10 person startup 3 years ago
• Achieved 1400 on their SATs. 8 years ago
• Top 25 on the Inc 5000 fastest growing companies in 2017. The year before they joined the company
• $100M in team revenue achieved but it’s a global company and they’re in a U.S. focused position. So less, probably much less

Sign #3: Removal of months

• Classic covert strategy to spread out experience over convenient turns of the calendar year
• Working at Hot Startup from 2017-2018 is more indicative of a 6 month stint than a two year stint
• Open question of whether one is currently at Hot Startup or was there a failure to mention one “left” last month?

Sign #4: Most recent title spread across entire tenure

• 7 years at Unicorn, very impressive
• Head of Fancy Department at Unicorn their entire tenure after coming right out of undergrad? Douuubt it!
• Title change does not necessarily equal promotion

Sign #5: Heavy skill endorsements & recommendations

• Is that a close colleague or their best friend recommending them?
• Endorsed for Microsoft Office 15x. Dear Lord
• Are these still really a thing? Exactly

Congrats, you’ve just earned a Masters in Filtration. Put it on the profile, you know you want to!