Thursday, March 24, 2011

Fake resumes...jail is waiting

Remember how effortlessly the suave Leonardo Di Caprio as Frank Abignale Jr. slipped in and out of his various roles as doctor, lawyer, a Harvard graduate or a pilot in Catch Me If you Can? None of his employers ever suspected he was a fake when they hired him. That's because as Frank Abignale Jr himself said very rightly: "… people only know what you tell them, Carl."

There are several such Franks at large these days in the country's corporate sector. Whether to keep pace with the peers or beat them at the game, or just to make a few quick bucks, youngsters are resorting to unfair means and "doing up" their resumes. From educational qualifications to projects worked on, everything is a lie.

Cops recently arrested a fake IndiGo airlines pilot, who was the wife of an IPS officer. An India Today report says :

"Gulati allegedly produced the forged marksheets of DGCA Airline Transport Pilot Licence (ATPL) test to get the commercial pilot licence."

Ever since, Air India has derostered another 'fake pilot' and according to a latest report in NDTV India may have 4000 fake pilots! Surely, 'Catch me if you can' seems to have inspired a whole new generation, suddenly!

According to a TOI report today, the DGCA has now decided to bring over 10,000 pilots under the scanner.

Fake pilots may be a recent revelation, but faking resumes isn't anything new. A few years ago, around 2007-2008, the IT industry was swamped with such resumes. At least 20 employees were found guilty of submitting incorrect documents in TCS, while Infosys sacked as many as 100 employees for discrepancies in their resumes and Wipro and Satyam have also hunted down those who faked their CVs.

In fact, in 2009, a survey showed that even the banking industry was flooded with fake resumes.

These days, employers are even more merciless when they find discrepancies in employees' CVs. They just terminate their services without any warning.

But it isn't surprising considering there are several online 'how to's to help fake a resume and get your dream job.

The scam assumed such proportions that it spawned a whole new industry of background verifiers as a result.

Companies have now become very cautious and employ specialists to conduct background checks on shortlisted recruits. Ethical compliance and honesty are important aspects of any multinational company.

People might know what you tell them initially, but eventually the culprit does leave behind some 'elementary' clue that could strip him of his dream run.

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