Lee and I had lunch with a customer of ours who is the VP of Sales for a medium-sized business. We were discussing why candidates lie about their education, primarily stating they have earned a degree when they have not. This information is easily confirmed so lying about it seems foolish.
We had one candidate who has been in the workforce for 30 years yet lied on his resume about earning a B.S. degree from a local university. A degree was not a requirement for this position. Besides, 30 years of sales experience easily trumps a degree in our world.
My only thought on this topic is that candidates must do it to get past the automated candidate software that provides first-pass filtering of respondents based on simple criteria (like a degree). I suspect the respondent’s thought is that they will do so well in the hiring process that the lie about the degree will be disregarded.