Beware of Resume Fabrications in Tough Times

Communications firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas out of Chicago released an article warning employers to be wary of resume fudgers, especially with so many applicants these days. Here is an excerpt for your company to heed:

As millions of Americans struggle with long-term unemployment, the temptation to stretch the truth on one’s resume to gain a competitive advantage is becoming harder to resist. Some desperate job seekers are going so far as to establish fake references. However, the payoff may not be worth the risk, according to one employment authority.

“There is very little proof that any form of resume boosting directly results in a job interview, much less a job offer. In contrast, there are scores of examples of individuals who have been eliminated from candidacy or fired after a fraudulent resume was uncovered,” said John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., the global outplacement consultancy which provides job-search training and counseling to individuals who have been laid off…

They also added this list:

Top Resume, Interview Fabrications

Education: Listing degree from a school never attended; inflating grade point average and graduate honors; citing degree from online, non-accredited "education" institution.

Job title: Making up a title or boosting actual title by one or more levels in hopes of obtaining better salary offers.

Compensation: Inflating current or previous salary and benefits to secure more money from prospective employer.

Reason for leaving: Saying it was a mass downsizing when the discharge was based on performance; asked to leave, but saying you quit; underplaying or completely hiding poor relationships with superiors.

Accomplishments: Overstating one’s contributions to a team project or company performance; claiming to have received special recognition; exaggerating level of participation in an important aspect of the business.

Just Say “No” to Résumé Blunders

Oh, the agony of job searches. There’s the time-consuming process of developing a summary of your many accomplishments and attributes (as hours pass, you begin to wonder if you’ll be finished when Haley’s Comet reappears in 2062). Nail-biting interviews also take a toll (sadly, willing the telephone to ring won’t guarantee a job offer). Here’s the good news: Your best weapon in the “job search jungle” is something you have complete control over — your résumé.

But, be aware: typos translate to trouble.

A recent article I saw polled senior executives at the country’s largest companies. Forty percent of respondents revealed they would disqualify candidates who submitted résumés containing grammatical errors.

Talk about having one chance to make a first impression!

The story also revealed some sloppy mistakes that sent the candidate packing:

• Hope to hear from you shorty.
• Have a keen eye for derail.
• I’m attacking my resume for you to review.
• Dear Sir or Madman (this is one of my favorites. Unless you really are applying to work for a madman, this salutation won’t earn you any points.)

Evn if re-reading you’re résumé becomes less appealing than other tasks such as tackling outdoor chores – during a blizzard – give it one last look (did you catch my misspelling of “Even” and "your?”). Otherwise, one mistake could bring it a one-way ticket to a potential employer’s trash can.  

How Employers are Using Facebook to Research Potential Hires

We’ve all heard how employers are looking at social media sites to research potential employees during the hiring process. But is the discovered information indicative of future performance? Thanks to a study from professors at the University of Evansville and Louisiana State University, there’s a little social science to answer this question. (Speaking of LSU, one might question if the sometimes volatile and outspoken Shaq would have gotten through admissions had Facebook been around when he attended the school. Then, without hesitation, one should probably answer "yes.")

This article from Inside Indiana Business by UE Asst. Professor Peter Rosen explains the study:

Louisiana State University Professor Don Kluemper and I both thought this was an interesting question, and one worth exploring. So last year, we began a study entitled “Future Employment Selection Methods: Evaluating Social Networking Web Sites.” The goal was to learn whether or not the information found on a person’s Facebook page could serve as an accurate barometer of that person’s personality, IQ and academic performance, which are many of the same things that predict job performance.

The answer, we found, was a resounding “Yes!” Working with 63 LSU students, all of whom had undergone training in what potential employers look for on Facebook, we were able to determine that much of what employers look for can, indeed, create an accurate impression of several personality traits, including:

• Extroversion
• Agreeableness
• Conscientiousness
• Emotional Stability
• Openness to Experience

To do this, we randomly selected six sample Facebook pages from a group of students that had agreed to join our research study. Each of the 63 trained student raters was asked to individually review the six sample pages. Using only what they saw on the site, the students were then asked to rate each Facebook user based on their perception of the person’s personality, intelligence, and academic performance – our proxy for job performance. Continue reading

Facebook Works to Out-Twitter Twitter

Sigh. You know, just when I feel like I’m fairly "with it" in terms of technology, Facebook goes and makes a bunch of changes. I blame the teenagers — though I’m trying not to feel like an old fogy here. But just give me an episode of "All In The Family" and a lukewarm Tab and let’s call it a day. At any rate, Techcrunch reports:

Facebook made a number of announcements today about changes to its home page, profile pages, and activity streams. Taken together, these represent a concerted response to the rise of Twitter as a real-time message broadcasting system that goes beyond members’ personal circle of friends.

One of the biggest changes is that Facebook is getting rid of the distinction between private profiles and public pages. The 5,000-friend limit will be dropped from the public pages. Facebook doesn’t want Twitter to become the way large companies and public figures connect to fans. Up until now, Facebook Pages haven’t really been the place fans go to connect with their favorite celebrities or brands. For that, they’ve started going to Twitter, where they can get updates in real time.

Facebook is also speeding up the updates that populate the news feeds on everyone’s personal page. Before, these would be updated every 10 minutes or so. Facebook’s introduction of real-time updates and a one-sided follow system mimics Twitter’s functionality. While it may be a little late to this part of the game, its user base of 175 million dwarf’s Twitter’s. Explains CEO Mark Zuckerberg:

"What we’re talking about today, is that there’s a philosophical change in that we want to converge these public figures (which are one way) and friends (two way connections)."

Stay tuned for a post in the near future about what employers are learning about applicants through Facebook.

Health Alliance Benefits Indiana Employers

Does the rising cost of health care make you feel nauseated? Does it make you feel like you have the flu, been punched in the gut, or just had to sit through a reality television marathon featuring "Keeping Up with the Kardashians?" The Indiana Chamber is involved with a coalition,  Indiana Employers Quality Health Alliance, designed to help employers deal with this pain. 

Below are just some of the components of the program, which is designed to improve the health care system while striving to control costs:

Leapfrog: The Alliance, working with the sponsorship of 155 Indiana companies, continues to lead the rollout of Leapfrog in Indiana. Leapfrog  is a national survey program designed to encourage progress by hospitals to reduce patient errors and better comply with quality measures. It does this by inviting hospitals to complete an online survey regarding their progress in these areas.

Indiana Health Information Exchange (IHIE): IHIE  is nationally recognized as the leader in applying information technology to health care. The number of clinical messages delivered to physicians continues to soar, with a cumulative volume reaching nearly 30 million by the end of 2007. IHIE continues to develop its physician performance evaluation tool known as Quality Health First.

Cooperation and Collaboration: The Alliance invited presentations from two successful coalitions regarding their structure and programs. Indiana employers were then surveyed about their health care goals.  These responses were evaluated by a task force, and a plan for future coalition activities developed.

Recruitment and Expansion: Initial discussions have taken place regarding a membership recruitment drive for the Alliance that, if successful, will enable it to become more directly effective in reducing health costs and improving quality for member employers. The Alliance plans to do this by recruiting, statewide, employers of between 25 and 3,000 employees, with a goal of new employers representing a total of at least 50,000 employees.