TCS fires employees for fake CV’s
The rampant practice of inflating one’s CV in the IT industry seems to have hit a major road block. TCS has just fired 20 employees at its Kolkata centre supposedly for their fake CV’s after background verification made hollow their claims. Even though it is common knowledge in IT circles that inflating one’s CV is rampant, still it is very uncommon to hear about employees being fired en-masse for fake CV’s. Earlier Infosys had asked close to 100 employees to leave in FY07 due to discrepancies found in the resumes. Some time back it was even reported that Wipro would be sharing with other IT firms the database of job applicants who have faked information in their CV’s. This strong step sends out a clear message to all those job hopping professionals who till recently so unprofessionally inflated figures like their past salary, designation and in some bizarre cases even the technology that they may have worked on and still managed to get away with it!
The modus operandi of the people involved in the racket is extremely professional. There are people who create shell companies and let loose candidates in the industry who are supposed to have worked for these companies. The faking happens at all levels: companies worked for, experience, customer projects and sometimes academic qualifications. The fake CV racketeering is not just at the candidate level, but it’s a well-oiled machinery that’s operating which has to be handled.
In the recent past all the major IT firms, including Infosys, Satyam and Wipro, and many mid-sized firms have taken a hard stand on fake or fudged resumes. However, the incidents continue. First Advantage, a leading background screening firm, in its recent report states that 30 per cent of all the resumes they have screened have discrepancies. The company screened some 2 million resumes in 2006-07. And the problem is not just limited to the fresher level, it goes up to the senior level as well. "One of the leading IT firms was hiring a practice head. But after his background check it came to light that the gentleman with over 20 years of industry experience had fake IIT certificates," says a spokesperson from a leading background screening firm in India.
One praise worthy solution to tackle this problem has come from the industry body Nasscom, which created the National Skills Registry (NSR), which has a candidates personal, academic and employment details and undergoes professional verifications. It had almost 160,000 registrations by 2007 end.
