You hear about people fabricating bits of their resume or embellishing their work history. Sometimes, you can catch this with rigorous reference checking. Other times, you may remain blissfully unaware of someone’s dubious past.
When I met Hosay Mangal and her business parter Greg Newton from Verify (a business that provides background checks on candidates and employees, including potential criminal records, credit history, medical, and educational qualifications), I was fascinated by their stories. I met them at a function for last year’s Telstra Business Awards. They were finalists and I attended as a previous winner.
This inspired my latest Enterprise post.
Many years ago, when I was deputy editor of a women’s magazine, a model came into my office to show me her portfolio.
I flicked through the pages, commented positively on her work and then came across a page that featured her on the cover of the French edition of Elle magazine.
The cover was lovely. But something wasn’t right.
I looked at the issue date: it was a year ago. The model told me she was living in Paris at the time and, indeed, her portfolio boasted some pages of her modelling in other French magazines. But then it hit me. By pure coincidence, I had actually been reading that copy of Elle the night before – and this model was definitely not on the cover.
It was only when I quizzed her further that she admitted that her boyfriend had photoshopped the entire thing.
You don’t have to be an eager model to resort to this kind of fraudulent activity in an attempt to get jobs. In a competitive job market, some applicants may be tempted to embellish or even lie outright about their experience.
Before you doubt whether much of this goes on, talk to Hosay Mangal, manager and business partner at Verify, a finalist in last year’s NSW Telstra Business Awards.
Are you for real?
Verify provides background checks on candidates and employees, including potential criminal records, credit history, medical, and educational qualifications.
Read the full article here.
Posted on 19 January 2012
