Resume Fraud

When Do You want to Know

It sounds obvious, but Samsonite has a lot of baggage.  Raymond Zhong, in the New York Times got the pleasure of writing that.  It was one of many recent articles highlighting the downfall of Samsonite's CEO over resume fraud.  The question after this kind of stuff arises, how common.  

According to this article in the Economic Times of India, the executive recruiting firm, Russell Reynolds Associates found resume fraud issues around once of twice in 100+ C level searches, but there was concern that there were padded resumes that were undetected.  In fact, resume fraud is often discovered, as in the Samsonite case, only when there are other issues, in the Samsonite matter, issues of related party transactions, being bandied about.  Even if you look for it, it may be hard to find resume fraud.  

The Economic Times article notes that the most frequent forms of resume fraud are items not that easy to pick up, that is covering up for gaps in employment and taking greater responsibility for various company successes.  These are things that a simple check-off verification process may not catch.  One has to be diligent with understanding dates on a resume and comparing known information with what is being reported back, but one also has to pick up on red flags such as if dates of employment appear to overlap.  As to the specifics of claims on a resume, if one does not build outside sources beyond HR and the references listed on a resume, it's unlikely the questions will be answered.

It's not clear how many executive level  resumes contain fudges or falsehoods.  When do you want to know that answer.