Lee’s not the only CV fraudster!
July 25, 2008
Remember the recent victory of Lee ‘THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT’ McQueen from The Apprentice, and the embarrassing way his embellished academic achievements were exposed by the interviewer that had phoned up his university, to find that he had only spent about 4 months there! Now an in depth study has found that occurrences of candidates lying on their CVs are increasing. Powerchex, a pre-employment screening company analysed thousands of applications submitted in one year to financial services companies and found that 17% of applicants had made something up on their CV. This figure was 4% higher than the previous year’s figure.
The study seemed to suggest that applicants felt that their academic background would be a big factor in their success, as candidates with degrees from lesser known or lower ranking universities were much more likely to embellish facts than those who graduated from one of the top 20 universities. Indeed, in Lee’s case, it was his academic background that he felt let him down so much that he needed to lie, and this led to the embarrassing and uncomfortable situation he faced when he was found out. However, Lee’s dishonesty didn’t lose him the opportunity to gain the role with the 6 figure salary at Sir Alan’s company. I think that Sir Alan could understand Lee’s reasons for mis-representing himself, and felt that Lee’s work experience and performance on the show were much more important factors to consider than his poor academic record.
Personally, I’m not really concerned which university a candidate attended, or even if they have a degree at all, as long as they can prove to me that they can do the job in question. Of course, in other industries academic achievement is much more imperative to certain roles, and some employers would argue that even if a specific qualification isn’t required, the fact that a candidate has completed a degree shows a certain level of application, commitment and ability. I would agree with this to a certain extent, although I don’t think that it means that someone who decided not to go to university is automatically less able than someone who did. There is a perception that lots of employers do think this however, and I can therefore understand why candidates sometimes feel they have no choice but to fabricate some facts on the CV and risk being caught out (I don’t think it’s right though!)
Employers worrying about candidates telling fibs on their CVs need to find ways of investigating this without it taking an unnecessary length of time. It’s not practical to phone around universities and colleges for every candidate coming through, so instead those people selecting new employees must use their questioning skills effectively at the interview stage. Effective questioning and probing can draw out the detail of what a candidate has achieved or the knowledge they have gained, and it will expose CV cheats if this is done well. See my article on effective questioning in interviews for more information on techniques and interview structures.
Some candidates will always push the boundaries of what is honest and proper when job hunting, and lots of them probably get away with it due to the relaxed attitude and approach of the employing organisation. A lot of the time this may not really matter as long as the person comes in and does a great job for the company, but there will be times that poor candidates slip through the net because they embellished facts and nobody found out. It’s these candidates that employers need to fear, and this is why effective recruitment and selection processes are very important.
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