Watching the programme “Lying For A Job” the other day I learned about a former taxi driver and waiter Barian Baluchi, who apparently made more than £1m by passing himself off as a medical professor and consultant psychiatrist. Donald Johnston posed as a qualified driving instructor after being jailed for claiming to be a qualified nurse.

While they are rather extreme examples and arguably neither “got a job” as both were probably self-employed it does raise the issue of people lying on their CVs. The program went on to show how three business owners/executives interviewed three candidates. One of the candidates was an actor with a fake CV; their challenge being to identify which one.

They then had an “expert” interviewer comment on the interviewing skills of the panel. I’d question his expert status however as he suggested the interviewers be very confrontational even going far as to as “have you had a work related affair” to try to catch out the candidate. Personally I don’t think that’s acceptable behaviour and if I were the one being interviewed I’d have got up and left at that stage as I wouldn’t want to work for someone like that.

There is however clearly a problem, employers need to vet potential employees and to verify they have the skills and experience they claim to have, whilst at the same time remembering that an interview is a two way process - you also need to sell your business to the candidate. This problem presents several potential business opportunities.

Recruiters may be interested in services that:

• Verification of technical skills. In my past experience as a software engineer I’ve written paper based technical tests for potential recruits, these could be adapted and delivered online prior to an interview to verify the candidates technical skills.
• Statistical evaluation of CVs. In cases where an employee might pose a risk to the business i.e. they will have access to confidential information, the company bank accounts or the like then a statistical analysis of their CV might be able to provide an indicator of the risk that their background doesn’t stack up.
• Reputation assessment. It’s amazing how much information some people put in their Facebook profiles or on Internet forums.

Although in the case of the jobs shown on the programme, it shouldn’t really have taken more than a quick check with the relevant professional body.

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