Over 10 Percent Indians Lie In Their Resume

More than ten percent of the Indians lie about their education, residence and criminal records in their resume while applying for jobs, as per the data collected by global screening agency, First Advantage.

Out of the total people giving wrong information, almost 10 percent of them report faking about completing a course, 5 percent report about fake universities. However, the majority of discrepancies, almost 50 percent are found in documents submitted by the candidates.

Purushotam Savlani, SVP and Managing Director of First Advantage said, "In India, background screening is done only by IT industries, finance firms and banks. Off late, we have also seen traction developing in sectors like hospitality and manufacturing."

However, this number is quite low when compared to foreign countries which can be due to the weak checking mechanism.

Background screening is a concept in India, but isn't followed much which results in people giving fake information. According to the data collected by the agency, the discrepancy versus verified percentage for 2011, 2012 and 2013 was at 10 per cent. In 2014 it had risen to 10.5 per cent, while in 2015 it has further risen to 11.6 per cent. However, it fell to 11.1 percent in 2016 and further to 10.6 percent, in the first half of 2017.

He added, "There are various checks while verifying the resume of a candidate, like education, past employment and criminal history. Educational discrepancies are taken very seriously, especially in fields like IT and Finance because if a person lies about having a skill that he/she does not have, technical work, which needs to be done by a specialist will suffer."

Rajguru Tandon

BW Reporters The author is a correspondent with BW Businessworld with keen interest in HR and employee welfare.