Ah, the pleasures and sorrows of (allegedly) gilding the lily.  As headhunters, the number one trap we work to avoid is the candidate who is perhaps a little over-exuberant when representing themselves on paper. 

To those who say LinkedIn et al should be putting us out of business, this our value-add: we meet candidates, we take references in the market, we check, we benchmark. You can't circumvent this with an app.

But here's the thing: imagine you have done the above and have to have the awkward conversation with your client: you bring to their attention that there may be questions surrounding elements of the past, referees have gone so far to openly question achievements.  And then, the client concludes the discussion by saying, "Fine, thanks for that.  We'll keep her on the shortlist."

What's all that about?  Oh, yes. Politics. Brexit.