One-in-Ten Aussie CVs contain Porky Pies

Professional networking comes naturally to me and as a business owner, marketer and recruiter, I am rigorous about maintaining my profile and contacts.

One day a former direct report invited me to connect with him on LinkedIn. Having not communicated for some years, I clicked through to his profile to check out where he was and what he had been up to since we parted ways. I was fascinated to discover that instead of correctly recording the role he had then held as state marketing manager, he is representing himself as having been the group manager, marketing and client development. In career terms, that’s quite a promotion.

The experience caused me to wonder just how many of LinkedIn’s 120 million professional members (it’s called the world’s biggest CRM system for a reason) also have misleading or deceptive information on their CVs.

The answer is a lot, in fact. According to the latest research by First Advantage, in Australia CV fraud increased by almost 14 per cent in 2012/13 such that more than one-in-ten candidate CVs are considered to contain an area of concern for prospective employers. The majority of discrepancies relate to job title/designation, reason for leaving and salary.

Education, including false qualifications, accounts for 20 per cent of all discrepancies.

Whether recruiting for my clients, or my business Market Expertise, I want to be able to rely on LinkedIn as an open source CRM system. So, too, do candidates have the right to expect they will be competing on an even playing field.

The truth is we must tread with caution because the former colleague I busted misrepresenting himself was only the tip of the iceberg.

#career #linkedin #performancemanagement #performanceplanning #cvfraud