Saturday, September 10, 2005

The Golden Age of Resume Padding

from: http://www.hrmguide.net/usa/recruitment/resume_padding.htm

May 31 2002 - A survey by the The New York Times Job Market research team indicates that 89% of job seekers and 49% of hiring managers in the New York metropolitan area believe that a significant number of candidates pad their resumes.
The researchers define resume padding as falsifying information on a resume to make a candidate look stronger. The hiring managers who believe that a significant number of resumes are padded consider that (on average) 52% of the resumes they receive are padded. But just 13% of job seekers surveyed admitted to ever having padded their resumes.
82% of responding job seekers say they think companies are aware of resume padding and believe that companies perform background checks on the following:
Some items on the resume-70%
All items on the resume-17%
None of the items on the resume-13%
The survey identified the following techniques used by hiring managers to verify job candidates' claims made on their resumes:
Checking of references-47%
Evaluating candidates during the interview process-30%
Checking of past employers/schools listed on resumes-17%
Asking questions of candidates to see how specific their answers are -6%
Evaluating new employees once they are on the job-4%
Requiring samples of candidates' work- 2%
Requiring candidates to complete tests during the hiring process- 2%

What happens if someone is hired and then found to have padded his/her resume? It seems that 68% of larger firms (100 or more employees) and 50% of smaller firms (less than 100 employees) have policies to address the situation. Most often the policy is to terminate the employment (79%). Disciplining the employee (7%) and an undetermined action depending upon what was padded (5%) are distant second and third choice actions.
29% of hiring managers and 21% of job seekers consider that any resume padding is a serious matter. Both groups believe the following to be the items most frequently padded on job seekers' resumes: Posted by Picasa

No comments: