Candidates inflating salaries, designations & achievements, even faking educational qualifications.
Some months ago, a senior professional, boasting certificates from IIT Bombay and IIM Ahmedabad and 20 years’ corporate experience, was on the verge of being hired as the practice head of a leading IT firm on an incredibly huge pay packet. But shortly before he was to get the offer letter, the prospective employer smelled a rat in the kind of responses he was giving and hired the services of a firm for background screening of the candidate.
The result was startling —- the certificates from IIT and IIM were found to be fake. Kumar seemed to have worked his way through 20 years without getting caught because his erstwhile employers hadn’t felt the need to authenticate his qualifications.
Cases like this would give any employer the sleepless nights, though this may be an extreme instance. Milder offences in the fake-CV spectrum involve candidates inflating their salaries and designations, citing incorrect tenures and claiming unimaginable achievements.
Experts say there is a growing trend of people exaggerating their attributes while shielding their weaknesses or negative traits cleverly from employers.
This is the reason, from just IT and BPO firms some years ago, today, almost every firm worth its name is actively seeking background screening of candidates at all levels, including vendors and contract staff.
“Education/ employment/ address verification, identity and reference checks are crucial to gauge any mischief played by a candidate. Misrepresentation or information mismatch in the above checks signals discrepancy,” said Wayne Tollemache, executive MD (international), First Advantage, a background screening firm, which unwrapped the case of false certificates cited above.
According to Rakesh Antala, co-founder and CEO, Crederity Info Services, a background screening firm, post the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, even the hospitality sector is leaving no stone unturned to verify the CV.
“Discrepancies in a CV reflect the candidate’s poor value system,” says Nihar Ranjan Ghosh, senior VP, human resource, RPG Retail.
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