Don’t let your CV land you in trouble

April 16, 2010 - PRLog -- Last month saw the first woman convicted of CV fraud sent to prison. Now a company has shown that she isn’t the only one - the number of people making untrue claims on their CV s and job applications is up a massive 50%.

Rhiannon Mackay had lied about having 2 A-levels and even made up a reference. She got a job as an Administrator with the NHS but was found out, prosecuted and has gone to prison for 6 months.

A company which does pre-employment screening – checking people’s claims on their job applications and CVs – warns that Rhiannon isn’t the only one. Dave Dinesen of BackCheck, says: “Since the beginning of the recession BackCheck has screened over half a million candidates and our ‘red flag’ rate has been higher by an order of magnitude – up to 25-50% higher depending on the industry. In a tough job market, it seems more candidates have succumbed to the temptation to overstate their qualifications and backgrounds.”

Kelly DeRosa of Hastings based training provider, Pitman Training, says: “I think people are starting to realise that today’s technology now means that ‘exaggerations’ on job applications can be found out very quickly.”

“We also find that employers are looking for up-to-date qualifications. Perhaps that is because they can be checked more easily. It is easy to get qualifications, so you don’t need to exaggerate on your CV and get yourself in trouble!”

Kelly’s top tips for making yourself more employable without needing to embroider your CV are:

1.   Have a polished, professional CV and a plain, relevant email address – such as firstname.surname@gmail.com. Lots of people have silly email addresses which put employers off.

2.   Do a check of any social networking sites you are on. Take off any drunken photos, dodgy comments (e.g. “I hate my job,” “Who else wants to shoot the boss?!”) and ask friends to do the same with any photos they have on their profiles of you (they can just ‘untag’ you if they don’t want to remove the photos). You would be surprised how many people have lost out on jobs  because the employer did a Google search on them.

Check your privacy settings and elect to only allow ‘friends’ to view your photos and information.


3.   Get relevant, up-to-date qualifications. With training providers such as Pitman, you can get accredited qualifications very quickly – there is no need to wait for the start of next term. Some of our full career diplomas can be done in as little as 6 weeks. ECDL can be done in a fortnight.


Pitman Training have a new course called, “Go … Get That Job!” which can help you with up-to-date job search skills. It also helps you identify your own unique qualities and what to put on your CV.











REFERENCES:
BackCheck report: http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/press-release/backcheck-r...
Jailed for CV fraud: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1260901/Woman-lie...




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Pitman Training Hastings opened in January 2010 and is part of the 170-year-old Pitman Training Group. We specialise in on-demand office & business skills training.

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