According to many studies, nearly 1 in 5 resumes may be spurious and may be embellished. Fake resumes pose a challenge to the modern recruiting process. When the organization recruits a candidate who does not have the skills, qualifications or experience he claims to have, the organization becomes a loser. Such under-qualified and inexperienced candidates may directly affect the output of an organization. Hence, it is in the interest of the organization that these individuals are identified during the initial stages of the recruiting process itself.

Organizations spend enormous amount of money in the recruitment process. Hence, it is all the more imperative that embellished and fake resumes are identified at the early stages. There are many ways of identifying a resume that is not genuine. The first step is to study the educational qualification that the candidate claims to possess.

The sequence of education needs to be checked for time gaps and other inconsistencies. Frequent questioning about the nature of the course undertaken and the reasons for the same may shed light on the genuineness of the resume. Probing a claim of qualification or competency in detail may reveal the hollowness of the claims. For instance. A candidate with a superficial and relatively light experience in the field of a certain competency may claim to have worked on them.

Candidates who embellish their resumes tend to make mistakes by mixing up the months. Cross questioning on the dates can reveal spurious entries in the resume.

One way of checking the resume’s claim of experience and exposure is to ask them to describe in writing a recent problem at their factory or office which they had solved and to describe their general work environment. This reply should be scrutinized with technical staffs in the organization who work in similar circumstances. The staff should be able to identify elements in the description that are not consistent with the position and work described.

While conducting interviews, ask candidates hypothetical questions such as how they would troubleshoot a server or repair a temperature controller. This can expose lack of knowledge and experience and expose fabrications in their resume. This can also tell you whether the candidate can solve problems on his own or is just a person obeying orders.

A second interview for short listed candidates in the presence of the technical staff can help. If the technical staff is not available, ask for a list of questions from the technical staff and ask the candidates to solve it. This can be evaluated by the technical personnel later.