A career coach shared 5 things she thinks TikTokers 'should lie about' in job interviews, but not everyone agrees

• Career coach Anna Papalia shared five things she said viewers "should lie about" in interviews.
• Papalia told TikTokers to lie about their hobbies, future plans, and criticisms of their former role.

A career coach with more than 15 years of experience in corporate recruiting shared five things she said she believed applicants "can and should lie about" in their job interviews in a now-viral TikTok that's racked up more than 1.6 million views.

Career coach Anna Papalia is the founder and CEO of Shift Profile, a consulting firm that provides corporate recruiting, talent acquisition, and training.

Papalia recommends that candidates lie when asked where they see themselves in five years.

"Nobody wants to hear you say that you see yourself in grad school or getting married or having babies," she told viewers in the February 7 video. "What we want to hear you say is: I see myself here at this organization."

She also recommended candidates lie about why they're looking for a new job and critiques they might have of their most recent workplace. "We don't want to hear that you're looking because you hate the culture of your current company," she said. Instead, Papalia recommended viewers tell interviewers they'd simply outgrown their position and were looking for a new challenge.

The same goes for criticisms of your most recent boss, Papalia said — particularly if your interview is with a prospective boss. "Lie about how you feel about your current boss or your current coworkers," she told viewers. "I don't care if you work for the worst, most micromanaging boss in the world. We don't want to hear you talk about that in an interview."

Papalia recommended viewers go light on honesty and play up the relevance of their personal hobbies. "Please — pick hobbies that sound professional and interesting. Don't tell me that all you do outside of work is watch Netflix."

Lastly, Papalia told viewers to "lie" and "embellish" their job description and title, especiallmainly if they've been "working above and beyond your job description, and you haven't been getting paid for it."

However, not everyone agrees. Career strategist Michelle Matthews previously told Insider that "embellishing is the same as lying in some people's eyes, and so you're threatening the integrity of your character."

Though smaller companies may not have the resources for a comprehensive background check, many larger companies do. "Bigger companies are doing their due diligence. At some point, you're going to be exposed," Kelli Hrivnak, a digital marketing and technical recruiter, previously told Insider.

While many top comments agreed with Papalia or thanked her for the insight, others jokingly asked what, aside from "doing my taxes, being a good employee," qualified as an interesting and professional hobby. Others expressed exasperation with the "big, ridiculous theater" of interviews or, as one commenter put it, the "outdated song and dance that uncovers nothing."

"Yes … I am a robot I have no personal dreams and goals, only work, and I love work," one user commented.

Some told Papalia the points she raised were exactly the culture-fit topics they were most transparent about: "This is the stuff I'm MOST honest about because I want a workplace that will accept me for who I am as a person," one commenter wrote.

Other commenters called lying in an interview a "sign of weakness."

Robert Kelley, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business, previously told Insider that job applicants who feel the desire to lie in general should try introspection first — asking what about themselves seems so deficient that they would need to lie.

Papalia is clear that you shouldn't lie about everything. In a separate video, she recommended several things prospective employees should never lie about in interviews," jokingly in honor of George Santos." Papalia advises that applicants not lie about fluency in a second language, educational degrees, previous employment, and whether they were fired or laid off.