Surfeit of false CVs as tech job demand is up
Which One Is Real?
The Economic Times - December 18, 2004

FORGED resumes are back to haunt recruiters. With the job marketing hotting up, instances of forged resumes are increasing, say information technology hiring firms and companies.

False resumes once common during the heady dot-com days when the demand for IT professionals far outstripped supply, have once again surfaced. "It has become a problem, but not as common as it was earlier." say IT hiring firms.

More the demand for a specific skill set, bigger is the instance of forged resumes, points out Jaya Kumar, chief executive, JK Consultants, a manpower recruitment firm specialising in IT.

To prove her point, she says that in technology areas such as Java, .Net, and Mainframe, the number of forged resumes are rising.

While there are several categories of forged resumes, the common ones are inflating work, project experience and salary. A few candidates resort to extreme or major forgery by claiming work experience in an organisation where they have never worked.

Mr Yogesh Bhura, managing director, group research centre, Quest Research, says that falsification of resumes and credentials has been in practice for a fairly long period of time. "It is only now that professionally managed companies are paying more attention to the issue."

Forged resumes are not restricted to the IT industry and is prevalent across industries. Likewise it is not restricted to the Indian sub continent but is common in almost all countries including developed economies like US, Japan and UK he adds.

Quest Research provides screening services in the Asia and currently runs screening programs for over 100 multinational companies in this region.

SK Patil, CEO, Marlabs India , says that candidates who forge resumes find it easier to target companies that may not have a high profile, thinking they can get away. Mr Bhura said that faking degree certificates and employment credentials (designation, period of employment, salary), forged experience certificate and salary slips are common.

Omitting professional misconduct in a candidate's previous employment and not disclosing criminal act committed or action taken by regulatory bodies like RBI and Sebi, are a few other examples of forgery he added. The last 10,000 resumes that Quest screened revealed that 4% to 8% had major discrepancy category, while 6% to 8% had minor discrepancy. Major discrepancies in resume according to Quest are forging documents, claiming high salary when what actually earned was a fraction.

Depending upon the hiring practice of an organisation, the percentage of candidates falsifying their résumés would vary from 10% to 25%. Maturity in the hiring practice and a robust credential verification program, can reduce the percentage of candidates falsifying their credentials says Mr Bhura

How do candidates get to falsify employment record or salary certificate? Jaya says that a company in Chennai, for a fee, is said to supplying forged documents like experience certificate and pay-slips.