An applicant for a marine biologist job at the federal government once made it onto a list of qualified candidates by claiming he was "very experienced" in relevant research, according to a new report.

The actual extent of his experience? Watching nature programs on the Discovery Channel.

But by the time a hiring manager at the unnamed agency drew that information out of the applicant in an interview, he had already made it past the first hurdle in the hiring process, wasting the agency's time and likely crowding out a candidate with genuine qualifications.

The process the federal government uses to evaluate job applicants is badly broken and must be fixed if the administration's effort to overhaul hiring has a chance of succeeding, according to the Partnership for Public Service's report, "The Weakest Link: How Strengthening Assessment Leads to Better Federal Hiring."

"A bad hire is still a bad hire even when done quickly," said the report, which was released this morning.

One problem is that the government too often relies on broadly worded questionnaires that allow applicants to self-report — and in cases like the aspiring marine biologist, fabricate — their skills and experiences.

"The biggest liars win in this system," one unnamed manager told the Partnership.

The report said the Office of Personnel Management and federal agencies need to create questionnaires with specific, well-written questions to effectively gauge candidates' skills and differentiate between levels of experience.

And the report said agencies should start using structured interviews, in which managers ask standard sets of questions designed to measure someone's technical and non-technical skills, instead of unstructured interviews. So-called "soft" or social skills — such as adaptability, teamwork and innovation — are just as important as technical talents, but often overlooked in today's assessments, the report said.

Partnership President Max Stier told Federal Times that agency leaders also need to devote attention and resources to improving their assessment tools.

"This is not simply an HR issue," Stier said. "This is something that will affect the talent they bring into the agency. All the great hiring changes will be for naught if ultimately we don't choose the right people for the job."

Agencies should put more effort into conducting reference checks — which today are largely an afterthought — and use them to verify candidates' claims and qualifications, the Partnership said.

And OPM needs to create a common standard for applicant tracking systems, the report said. The government now has 10 different systems, none of which can communicate with one another. This means applicants can't take information or assessment scores entered into one system and easily transfer them to another agency's platform.

"If we are going to make applicants jump through a couple extra hoops to work for the federal government, let's at least make sure they are the same hoops," one unnamed agency executive said.