Posted on 02/10/2018 4:15:35 PM PST by nickcarraway
Call it exaggeration or stretching the truth, the fact is that many people lie on their resume. For recruiters and hiring managers, the problem is so widespread that it is, to some degree, expected.
How much are Americans lying? A recent survey by HireRight revealed that 85% of HR professionals have found a lie on a resume. The lies don't seem to have abated with low unemployment; that number is up from 66% five years ago.
When asked, 46% of employees report knowing someone who misrepresented or exaggerated their resume, according to Office Team. What are they fudging about? The most common lie centers on experience, followed by duties, education and employment.
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Tech vs. truth
Some say applicant tracking systems may be to blame. World-weary recruiters, trying to sift through the hundreds of resumes that come in response to every posting, are turning to technology to thin the herd.
But candidates have wised up — realizing that their applications may never make it to a human who would allow one year and 11 months' experience to slide when a posting says two years' experience — and are honing their resumes to make the software's cut. The same tech that was supposed to make it easier to hire has now made it easier to hire the unqualified.
“Employers have significantly higher chances of choosing candidates with incorrect credentials," Danny King, CEO of Accredible, told HR Dive. For recruiters, the time saved screening has created time spent verifying.
“Third party verification,” King says, “is a necessary step in an ever-increasing digital hiring environment.”
Enter blockchain
Blockchain is the newest tool in HR's toolbox. The technology isn’t terribly new, but HR professionals are beginning to find uses for it.
If you don't know what blockchain is, you’re not alone. The short version: it lets you access goods, services or information directly from the source without a “trusted third party.” (Think ordering a ride directly from a driver without the ride service taking a fee.) Want the long version? See Blockchain: What is it and how is HR using it?
When it comes to resumes, blockchain technology has the potential to largely eliminate exaggeration. Schools can post degrees and educational details, employers can share dates and titles, and credentialing entities can make information available. Candidates could then authorize employers to access their records directly.
“Although blockchain cannot guarantee all exaggerations or flaws will be detected, it does dramatically reduce incidents of fraudulent points and helps employers get the most accurate picture of their candidate’s credentials before hiring," King said.
First steps Blockchain for HR is in its infancy. MIT was one of the first universities to issue “recipient-owned virtual credentials” when it debuted blockchain last year to allow access to degrees.
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Email: Enter your work email SIGN UP The key is a reliable source, says Steve Chen, EchoLink project founder; “Blockchain can be used to provide verified education and skill information if the data sources are verified. i.e. if we know degree info is put on the blockchain by universities and not users themselves, then such information would have a high degree of integrity.”
Wide adoption will be important, too, says John Nurthen, executive director global research at Staffing Industry Analysts. “If schools, universities, employers, skills test providers and drug screening agencies all agreed to record data on a common blockchain, we might see much more certainty added to the hiring process," he said.
So how do we get there? “Until we see the emergence of a dominant player around which consensus emerges, the promise of resume integrity will mostly remain an aspiration," Nurthen says.
Blockchain’s potential How blockchain will integrate with applicant tracking systems remains to be seen, but it could well be the next phase of ATS evolution. Imagine a system that allows candidates to direct HR right to their credentials for immediate verification.
The benefits could go beyond time saving. HR could focus on the more important strategic aspects of the profession, like employee engagement, development and retention. Blockchain has the potential to revolutionize not only how we hire, but how we dedicate HR bandwidth.
I know a FEMALE who blatantly lied about her college and she has NEVER been scrutinized by MAJOR companies. Either they ignore or are incompetent. A resume check takes very little time. I believe many get and keep jobs via winks and nods.
So the possibility of blockchain finding Hussein O’s records is Slim Pickens?
I’ve run into a few frauds that somehow got away with lying about their professional and educational history.
It seems that just about any job I applied for, big or small, practically wanted bone marrow from me and my signature in blood.
These days I have a recruiter pinging me to go to Volvo (assuming I get through the hoops).
If I can get the money I’m asking for, I can see me there.
Silicon Valley:
I interviewed one Indian woman with a listing for “Electron Microscopy” —really impressive.
Inspired, I asked her about it. I was beaming.
“I borrowed that off of my friend’s resume”.
They’re NOT EVEN ASHAMED OF IT.
That was a real wowzer.
No wonder they don’t want to live among people like them.
My PhD is from the University of Zimbabwe.
Try to disprove that one!
‘So glad I’m gainfully retired.
It’s better to stretch the truth and gt the job then to be unemployed.
Correct. Implementations are right now showing up here and there, but it means nothing if it isn’t put on decades old records.
https://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/09/schools-are-recording-students-results-on-the-blockchain.html
Or in Obama’s case, someone doesn’t fudge it yet again to pass.
Saw a post recently. Company wants 10 years of NodeJS experience. NodeJS was created 2009.
Fact checking is a circle jerk and a fraud.
Liberals fact check against liberal sources, so when conservatives report something liberals self-censor, it is flagged by algorithms as unverified because it isn’t verified against a source liberals consider legitimate.
When liberals do “fact check”, they check every little detail of what conservatives say to be able to say it is partially (at best) or mostly untrue while letting whoppers by the left go unvetted.
Who’s Checking the Fact Checkers?
A new study sheds some light on what facts the press most likes to check.
https://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/peter-roff/2013/05/28/study-finds-fact-checkers-biased-against-republicans
I’ve never gotten work with a resume. I walk in, tell them what I can do, start the next day.
Sometimes I’ve been asked for one just so they can have one on file.
I will admit when I’m looking at resumes that people drop off, I’m not looking at job experience. I’m looking for how old they are. I prefer to hire older over younger. The younger barring some exceptions don’t have any work ethic.
Resume exaggeration is a response to the fraud of HR staff posting job experience and skill requirements that no human being could have possibly acquired during a lifetime professional career, even for mundane job postings. Job applicants are only doing what they have to do to get a damn job so they can live a life.
Mine is specific experience and it was always recruiters or employers chasing me. I’d be sitting at my desk and phone calls would come in from people I didn’t know and never heard of before. If I could have gotten to the managers, it would have been better.
That being said, I took a less-than-optimal job a few years back. It was an absolute mess, close to impossible to fix. Even the woman who had been there for 20+ years prior didn’t want to try and fix it any more.
But I’m glad that works for you. It’s certainly the way America used to be.
Oops messed-up by interjecting one sentence out-of-sync afterwards.
[ Mine is specific experience and it was always recruiters or employers chasing me. If I could have gotten to the managers, it would have been better. USUALLY at work, I’d be sitting at my desk and phone calls would come in from people I didn’t know and never heard of before. ]
I’m in northern Alberta, and I’m an electrical contractor oil and gas. There’s a lot of demand for what I do which is good.
Are you at a place you like now?
If Canada keeps getting worse, I may bring my company to the US. I need to talk to some immigration lawyers again on how that works.
FReepmail
I was in HR in a third country and the Americans always exaggerated and the Brits always underplayed their achievements.
Virtually all cryptocurrency thefts are a result of failure to secure cryptographic keys. This is the difference between stealing the combination to your safe and cracking the safe. No one has cracked the safe that is Bitcoin. Quantum computing will likely be able to do it eventually, but by the time it can, the cryptography will have evolved to compensate.
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