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That statement demonstrates a thinking process. Why only CVs? There is enough
embellished news floating around. There are fake drugs. There is fake currency.
There are fake bodies. And is this a new problem? Not really. Back in 1976 one
of our classmates at IIT-Delhi faked his resume to get admitted to a US
university. He was later caught. Till then he became a folk hero. I recall a
discussion where a couple of us insisted that what he had done was not proper.
We were promptly toldin colorful languagethat we lacked brains and courage and
therefore were pulling down an achiever!
Faking CVs is certainly not a legitimate work practice. But it is a rather
convoluted problem.
The scale of hiring in the IT/BPO industry makes it the most lucrative target
for fakers. When individual companies hire hundreds of people a day the success
probability of getting in on a fake CV is the highest. Reference checks maybe
performed but there intensity and depth is limited. So it is a soft target. And
gets attacked.
It is also possible that the industry is a willing target. Under the pressure
of numbers the recruiters may let in suspicious resumes. And the fact that it
happens should not be a shattering surprise. In fact employees claim that it is
good for the industry if they keep some suspicious folks around. They can be
conveniently thrown out when projects dry up! Far fetched? Yes. But it is not a
perception that needs to be encouraged.
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| Shyam Malhotra |
| I completed computer engineering in
2003. I tried to get a job for a year. I didnt manage even a single
interview. Then I padded up my CV with some experience I didnt have. I got
a job as a software engineer. Today, I handle a team of 15 peopleall of
them have lied on their CVs. My team won the Best Team In the Company
award, among 105 teams! I serve my company with loyalty and hard work.
Is
there anything wrong in having lied on my CV?
(Excerpted from a blog discussion on faking CVs) |
Then there is the question of company values and integrity. Resume fakers
insist that the same companies think nothing of sprucing up their multi-year,
multi-million dollar proposals with half truths. That is considered good
marketing. So why does embellishment by an individual become a punishable
offense? Are values meant only for the HR processes; while business development
invents its values in real time? And how is business exigency justifiable while
personal exigency is not?
And finally the clincherdoes it really matter what was said on the CV, when
the same guy is doing very well at work? As another blog entry claims, A fake
resume gets your foot in the door, but you still have to open the door! And one
may add, you have to learn how to stay inside. The Indian value system and
recruitment processes put a premium on qualifications and experience. Globally,
it is abilities, competencies and demonstrated success that get higher weight.
At the entry level India has a developed system of tiers of colleges and levels
of MBA degrees. And a caste system operates in recruitments.
It makes sense to move toward a recruitment system that is based more on
abilities and demonstrated skills rather that resumes. If you write good code
you are hired to program. If you have good communication skills you can be a
call center agent. The tools to measure these need to be developed and used. A
CV is rather inadequate as a tool. So why not give low weightage to the CV in
the hiring system? The need to pack it with half truths will automatically go
down.
Otherwise figuring out which half is the truth will remain a problem.
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