Landing a new job should feel like a step forward. But if your new role turns out to be very different from what you were promised, you may have been “career catfished.” The term describes when a company misrepresents the job, company culture or compensation to lure in candidates — and it’s happening a lot more often than you might think.
Nearly 80% of U.S. workers report being victims of this devastating trend, according to a Monster poll. Many said their job responsibilities were different from what was expected, felt the company culture was misrepresented, or discovered that the compensation or benefits package was overstated. (1)
On the flip side, 13% of workers admit to catfishing employers by exaggerating their skills or background, while 67% say they believe they work with someone who misrepresented themselves during hiring. (2)
As you navigate the job market, staying aware of potential career catfishing situations may help you avoid falling into a trap.
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If you’ve been career catfished and find yourself needing to leave the job or at least restart your job search in the background, this course of action can have very real consequences on your financial situation.
Ideally, you’ll have savings to lean on during your job search. But with one in three Americans reporting no emergency savings, according to an Empower survey, that safety net might not be there when you need it. (3)
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, it takes an average of 24.5 weeks, or around six months, to find a new job. (4) Since 37% of Americans can’t afford an unexpected expense over $400, many Americans simply cannot afford to be jobless for months at a time. (5) Not to mention, missing out on 24.5 weeks of earnings would amount to around $29,300 in lost wages for a worker earning the median salary of $1,196 per week. (6) Even for workers with robust emergency savings, thousands of dollars in lost wages can derail carefully laid financial plans.
Beyond losing out on a salary coming in, leaving a job too soon often means leaving access to affordable healthcare behind. In terms of healthcare, job seekers might have to spend between $300 and $500 or more per month to maintain individual coverage. (7)
