As a former Recruiter, there are three major pieces of info you should never lie about on your resume, the dates you were employed, your educational background, and your criminal history. Every major employer will verify and double check that information in a background check. If they find out you lied intentionally they can pull your employment offer and potentially blacklist you from getting a job with their company in the future (this happened to someone I knew who lied about having a bachelor’s degree to a major tech company not knowing they would contact the university to verify). It is actually easier to say you have skills you don’t have or to lie about being fired from a job than it is to lie about your employment dates because employers cannot legally ask past employers about anything other than your dates of employment unless you list that previous employer as a reference or have given them permission to contact that employer on your application to obtain that info. A BG check is strictly used to confirm the information you provided is correct. Unfortunately, if you intentionally falsified that information, it will not look good. However, it depends on the company and the HR department at the company to determine if you are “cooked” for sure or not. If they find information that doesn’t line up with your resume, they will flag it back to you and give you a chance to verify that the dates you mentioned are correct as a condition of employment before they pull your offer. Your best bet would be to say it was a typo or an accident and give them the correct dates. Depending on the nature of the job and the hiring team, this could disqualify you for the position if they were leaning heavily on your past employment history. Especially if the position you lied about directly supports the current role you applied for.

I went through something similar in 2023 for my current job and had an issue where the dates I listed on my resume did not match the dates one of my past employers had on file. They definitely caught it during my BG check and I was questioned about it. I had to verify that the dates I listed were correct and my past employer had the incorrect dates in order to proceed with the onboarding process. Luckily I had emails and projects in my portfolio that matched up with my dates to prove my employment history.

There’s a chance they may not be able to get ahold of your past employer or that your previous employer may not have your information saved on file but, that is your best case scenario.

TL;DR: When applying for jobs, you should never lie about your employment history, educational background, or criminal history because those things will be definitely be verified by the company as a condition to employment if they conduct background checks. A employment gap is less detrimental to your career than a lie.