01/09/2008

News / Resumes the wrong way

What potential employers don't know about your past experience can't hurt them, but what they can discover about it has the potential to destroy any chance you had at landing that new job.

Résumé fraud is on the rise. A report from professional association Career Directors International, based in Melbourne, Fla., says that 52 percent of job seekers admit to padding their résumés. And the report lists research outlining major résumé misstatements on more than 42 percent of résumés.

It's hard to pinpoint the reason for increasing fraud because it's not confined to one type or level of career. Coaches, CEOs, professors and even poet laureates have made the news in the past year for their faked credentials.

One answer could be improvements in technology that make it both more tempting to fudge information and easier to catch misstatements. "Much like you can go online to trace the maintenance history of any vehicle, it's much easier today for employers to check people's backgrounds and so forth," says career-empowerment coach Jay Block of West Palm Beach, Fla. The Internet also offers "degree mills" that tempt job seekers with questionable degrees for a fee, says the Career Directors report.

Block says other reasons may be driving increased fraud, which he prefers to call résumé padding. "We don't have a human-resources attitude in this country, and some job seekers are fighting to survive," says Block. When job seekers are desperate for their résumés and qualifications to stand out, they may resort to padding their experience or education. Technology also may contribute to the reason job seekers must fight so hard to stand out. Many workers come home and look for work through their computers, plus geography is less of an issue in job searches. "As a result, you've got more and more strangers looking at strangers' biographies," says Block.

Cindy Wilson is vice president of corporate recruiting for the MHA Group in Irving, Texas. She says that falsifying education comes up highest in the checks her company performs. At the same time, "the biggest reason the candidate doesn't make it further in the application process is lack of qualifications," she says.

Employers and recruiting firms are checking. Block says the Society for Human Resource Management reported that 96 percent of employers perform some sort of reference or background check. They're finding discrepancies not only in education attained but also in previous employment titles and dates, reasons for leaving previous jobs, former job responsibilities and accomplishments, past salaries and other claims. If a job applicant is found out, they're usually terminated before - or immediately after - starting. Wilson says applicants have a short time period in which to dispute the findings of the vendor who performs the MHA Group's background checks but that the applicant may admit their falsification at that time.
In Washington, the state has gotten into the act. In 2006, a law took effect banning the use of fake academic credentials to promote a business, obtain employment and for other listed purposes. The misdemeanor is punishable by up to one year in jail and up to $5,000 in fines. In most cases, however, Block points out that unlike the job application, the résumé is not a legal document. Still, just because you may be completing information online or at a kiosk, don't believe a human won't match up the information at some point. "Although the résumé may be more marketing focused, the application and résumé should not differ from one another but should be directly related," says Wilson.

Gaps in employment raise red flags on résumés and applications, and Block says many applicants will fill them in with comments such as "I worked for a friend" or "I did consulting work."

If an applicant has issues such as gaps, is desperate for work, or feels his or her qualifications lack, the best approach is to form a plan - maybe even seek a career professional's help - not to fake information. "There's a process for getting a job, like baking a cake, like going through college," says Block. Instead, you have to package your skills and your résumé, much like a marketing campaign. "Why anyone is committing fraud is they're missing something on their résumé. And the way to neutralize that is strategically, not fraudulently. It's not a lack of resources, it's a lack of resourcefulness," says Block.

By TERESA ODLE
CTW Features

Sources: http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/157-01082008-1467613.html

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