National Post Business Magazine

National Post Business Magazine

Canada's #1 Business Magazine

September, 2000

Work

WHERE IT HAPPENS

"The difference between a job and a career is the difference between 40 and 60 hours a week" - Robert Frost

LIE DETECTING

Prudence is the first casualty of the war for talent. In their battle for top employees, many companies are neglecting to do fundamental resume checks. A study by career consulting firm Murray Axmith revealed that only 44% of the companies surveyed check educational background, licenses or designations every time they hire an employee. So what do these numbers mean?

Michael Ross, an Executive Career Consultant with Resume Consultants Ltd., in Toronto, estimates that 20-25% of all resumes are "embellished" with anything from inflated sales portfolios to mail-order PhDs. "People feel the need to glorify themselves because the job market is so competitive," says Mr. Ross, "and corporations neglect background checks because they don't have time or because they were really impressed by the interview." Needless to say, there have been some high-profile examples of people fudging their qualifications by falsely claiming they had post-graduate degrees or special qualifications and designations.