EmploymentDigest.net

When the Resume Lie is Uncovered

Posted on 26. Oct, 2005 by Bill in Employment News

When the Resume Lie is Uncovered

Resumes have their own language.
A “summer internship” often means studious coffee-making. “Basic German” means you can say your name with a German accent. “Good computer skills” — you like sending e-cards. But how often are resumes checked? And what happens if the “facts” are uncovered?

“We don’t check all the information on a resume in detail, right from the very beginning,” said Olga Andreyeva, business development manager at Coleman Services recruitment agency.
“This is not only because of the huge amount of work it would entail, but also so as not to undermine the position of those applicants currently in employment,” she said.

The difficulty in checking every detail on every submitted resume has encouraged many job applicants to be bolder yet more selective on paper than they might have been otherwise.
One fourth of all resumes in the U.K. contain false information concerning age, the Charity People public organization reported in a recent survey. A significant number of those surveyed felt that job applicants today need to conceal their true age for fear of discrimination.

In Russia only 3.5 percent of employers set strict age limits for jobs, according to data gathered by recruitment industry research agency Begin Group. Meanwhile, factors such as work experience, qualifications, and personal characteristics take prime importance in the selection process.
In order to identify falsities in an applicant’s resume and reference letters, recruitment agencies and the human resources departments of companies are required to review the information at different levels.
Most agencies say they check basic information such as the degree, city registration and employment records, which are available at the initial stage of the selection process.
Other points can usually be checked during the job interviews or verified confidentially through a few phone calls to companies the job applicant has had some dealings with, recruiters said.
In certain industries the limited circle of specialists means that “many people know each other and it’s not easy to conceal something anyway,” Andreyeva said.
In many Western companies operating in Russia, as well as in large Russian companies, after a general verification, there follows a series of final security checks.
“We had several cases when an applicant, who at first sight suited all company requirements, was rejected after a security check,” said the general director of EMG Professionals in St. Petersburg, Olga Andreyeva. “Although in such cases recruitment agencies do not usually get an explanation from the client companies, it often means that the rejected applicant had a previous criminal conviction and was a risk for the company.”

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Tags: Employment News