How to Spot Résumé Fraud

By CARI TUNA

 

How can managers catch résumé fraud?

As more people look for jobs – and become increasingly desperate -- hiring managers need to be on guard, experts say. "Survey after survey shows that people lie and mislead on their resumes," says Lee Pomeroy, president of Executive References LLC, a background-checking firm in New York. During the downturn after the Internet bubble burst, "as people were unemployed more, the accuracy of the data fell off," he says.

Managers should review résumés with a skeptical eye, verify credentials, and ask the candidate specific, detailed questions about claims.

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Other ways to avoid being duped:

• Confirm the circumstances of every change in employment – whether voluntary or involuntary – with a candidate's previous employers, says Mr. Pomeroy. And when considering managers and executives who are exiting a battered or liquidated firm, especially in the financial services industry, employers should try to understand the role the candidate played in the firm's fate.
• Ask the candidate for exact dates – to the day or month – of prior employment, and ask him to explain any gaps. "There can be that embarrassing two-month [job] in between, or those 90 days in jail," says Michael D. Allison, chairman and CEO of International Business Research, a corporate-investigations firm in Princeton, N.J.
• Don't call only the references provided by a candidate. Seek additional references, such as former colleagues, supervisors or direct reports, Mr. Allison says.
• Don't assume candidates provided by an executive search firm are well-vetted, says Peter LeVine, a reference-checking consultant in Delray Beach, Fla. "You can't afford to make assumptions."
• Run a Web search. "Anybody who doesn't Google that employee creatively is making a mistake," Mr. Pomeroy says. If anything turned up by a search – a title or date of employment, for example – doesn't match a candidate's résumé, "keep digging."

Read full article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122653695797922735.html