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Do not Fake your CVs
Posted On June 13, 2006 by Raja Kishore Reddy filed under Miscellaneous
He very politely enquires whether I have referenced a candidate who according to the candidate’s CV claims that he worked under me for over 10 months in 2001. I told him that I cannot remember such a person having worked fro us. The HR executive stresses that the candidate in question has actually produced a letter (albeit a photo copy) on Developer IQ letter head that clearly states and there is even a signature of mine that is exactly the same as the one in the magazine.
Since number of students has done internships with us, and I have not exactly interacted with them personally, I replied that this may be true. However I remembered that we never had a letterhead with the Developer IQ logo. As far as I remember all certificates and letters were issued on the company name IQ Tech Media. So I requested the gentleman to kindly email me a copy of the letter and resume of the candidate.
In less than an hour I received an email scanned copy of a letterhead with a signature which was exactly the same as the one I used to sign off each of the editorials in the magazine for five years. The letterhead obviously was created with the logo from www.developeriq.com, and it was a very poor forgery, but a very good attempt.
I was furious and sent off a quick mail to the company saying that all this was bogus. I also called up the candidate and asked him why he did this.
The ‘wise guy’ in question was quite apologetic and said that his was a desperate and harmless ploy to gain an entry into a smaller, and hardly heard of software house in a small C class city. He had passed out of college six years ago, and during the dark days of tech slow down could not get a small job since every one asked for experience. After struggling for nearly ten months and after sending his resume to hundreds of companies and HR consultant he nearly gave up hope. Then an HR Consultant inspired him to get some experience certificate so that he could push him into a job.
The candidate in question figured out that if he uses an experience certificate of a Bangalore based company, there was no way he will be caught since the company he had then applied for job was up in the North hills.
He got his job, thanks to this little bit of forgery, and from there his career really bloomed. In less than a year he managed to get a very good break with a leading software company and moved to Delhi.
This was followed by another break which saw him joining a top software company based in Chennai. He spent three years there and got promoted and saw his salary treble. He then applied for a couple of jobs, and landed a plum posting with a leading software company, who had just up an operation to systematically verify each resume. He figured out that the company will cross check his references of his last two jobs, and may not delve into his history way that deep. And rest is history!
By the time I spoke with him, he was already asked to resign his job, and he asked me what he needs to do in future. I frankly felt bad. Here was a bright young man, nearly drawing a seven figure annual salary, having made decent progress in his career, just married to a young lady and looking forward to a great career and life ahead. And he was suddenly rendered jobless. I wished him luck and told him not to repeat the same.
Chicken and Egg problem
A predicament for engineers passing out of college is that unless you do make it in the campus selections getting a good job are almost next to impossible immediately. Most try to take up a job with a company of lesser profile, gain some experience and then take up a job with a bigger outfit. Others take up an easier route— they fake their CVs, get a few references and try for a job. Some succeed and some don’t!
“If you do not have experience, you do not get a job,” says a disgruntled youth. “ Without a job how do you gain experience,” he ponders.
Welcome to the chicken and egg problem that no one in the industry seems to have an unyielding solution.
Anil Biswas an HR Consultant throws up statistics. “ Though there are some 50,000 new jobs created every six months or so in Bangalore, just less than twenty per cent of these openings are for a fresher. There are nearly forty thousand freshers flocking in each year to the new city of hope.”
Invariably everyone need to get a break, and many take up this short cut to get the first break. “A glorified CV helps, as a few months or even a year of experience is considered just right for most entry level jobs. Many engineers come to the city searches for a job, when they do not find one, join a BPO. Meanwhile somehow manages a certificate out of any of the smaller companies through some friend of acquaintance. The friend inside the company where he claims experiences often acts as an alibi, and when the recruiter calls up for references his claim comes through. However, after a few years when he applies for a newer job, he gets caught,” he says.
“Fake CVs are the biggest worry these days,” says Pankaj Agarwal, the CEO of Momentum Technologies, one of the leading services company with strong base in Canada, US and Europe. “It is worrying not just because someone may not be what he claims to be, but it is a question of integrity. We value integrity above everything. When a person fakes his CV it proves that he is not honest. How can we trust such a professional?” he adds.
Most services companies have outsourced CV verification to third part organizations and these companies are often incentivized for coming up with the ‘truth’. “Some of these orgs work like the Mafia, and uses multiple channels to verify whatever you claims are,” says Biswas.
To gain experience you now need to get some ‘real’ experience. That is the only sure way to a sfae and successful career.
Since number of students has done internships with us, and I have not exactly interacted with them personally, I replied that this may be true. However I remembered that we never had a letterhead with the Developer IQ logo. As far as I remember all certificates and letters were issued on the company name IQ Tech Media. So I requested the gentleman to kindly email me a copy of the letter and resume of the candidate.
In less than an hour I received an email scanned copy of a letterhead with a signature which was exactly the same as the one I used to sign off each of the editorials in the magazine for five years. The letterhead obviously was created with the logo from www.developeriq.com, and it was a very poor forgery, but a very good attempt.
I was furious and sent off a quick mail to the company saying that all this was bogus. I also called up the candidate and asked him why he did this.
The ‘wise guy’ in question was quite apologetic and said that his was a desperate and harmless ploy to gain an entry into a smaller, and hardly heard of software house in a small C class city. He had passed out of college six years ago, and during the dark days of tech slow down could not get a small job since every one asked for experience. After struggling for nearly ten months and after sending his resume to hundreds of companies and HR consultant he nearly gave up hope. Then an HR Consultant inspired him to get some experience certificate so that he could push him into a job.
The candidate in question figured out that if he uses an experience certificate of a Bangalore based company, there was no way he will be caught since the company he had then applied for job was up in the North hills.
He got his job, thanks to this little bit of forgery, and from there his career really bloomed. In less than a year he managed to get a very good break with a leading software company and moved to Delhi.
This was followed by another break which saw him joining a top software company based in Chennai. He spent three years there and got promoted and saw his salary treble. He then applied for a couple of jobs, and landed a plum posting with a leading software company, who had just up an operation to systematically verify each resume. He figured out that the company will cross check his references of his last two jobs, and may not delve into his history way that deep. And rest is history!
By the time I spoke with him, he was already asked to resign his job, and he asked me what he needs to do in future. I frankly felt bad. Here was a bright young man, nearly drawing a seven figure annual salary, having made decent progress in his career, just married to a young lady and looking forward to a great career and life ahead. And he was suddenly rendered jobless. I wished him luck and told him not to repeat the same.
Chicken and Egg problem
A predicament for engineers passing out of college is that unless you do make it in the campus selections getting a good job are almost next to impossible immediately. Most try to take up a job with a company of lesser profile, gain some experience and then take up a job with a bigger outfit. Others take up an easier route— they fake their CVs, get a few references and try for a job. Some succeed and some don’t!
“If you do not have experience, you do not get a job,” says a disgruntled youth. “ Without a job how do you gain experience,” he ponders.
Welcome to the chicken and egg problem that no one in the industry seems to have an unyielding solution.
Anil Biswas an HR Consultant throws up statistics. “ Though there are some 50,000 new jobs created every six months or so in Bangalore, just less than twenty per cent of these openings are for a fresher. There are nearly forty thousand freshers flocking in each year to the new city of hope.”
Invariably everyone need to get a break, and many take up this short cut to get the first break. “A glorified CV helps, as a few months or even a year of experience is considered just right for most entry level jobs. Many engineers come to the city searches for a job, when they do not find one, join a BPO. Meanwhile somehow manages a certificate out of any of the smaller companies through some friend of acquaintance. The friend inside the company where he claims experiences often acts as an alibi, and when the recruiter calls up for references his claim comes through. However, after a few years when he applies for a newer job, he gets caught,” he says.
“Fake CVs are the biggest worry these days,” says Pankaj Agarwal, the CEO of Momentum Technologies, one of the leading services company with strong base in Canada, US and Europe. “It is worrying not just because someone may not be what he claims to be, but it is a question of integrity. We value integrity above everything. When a person fakes his CV it proves that he is not honest. How can we trust such a professional?” he adds.
Most services companies have outsourced CV verification to third part organizations and these companies are often incentivized for coming up with the ‘truth’. “Some of these orgs work like the Mafia, and uses multiple channels to verify whatever you claims are,” says Biswas.
To gain experience you now need to get some ‘real’ experience. That is the only sure way to a sfae and successful career.