Estimated Read Time: 6 Minutes
- Common occurrences for when people are attempting to falsify their education are “odd” degree titles
- Confirm if everything on an applicant’s resume and past work history is true.
- Go back to the source! Always refer to past employers and stated universities for confirmation.
Boy would it be nice to live in a world where we can just trust what everyone says. Heck, even our parents fibbed to us…Tooth Fairy? Santa Clause? Yeah right! But if your parents would fib about something like mystical creatures (spoiler alert, Santa Clause and the Tooth Fairy aren’t real, sorry.) then you can bet that a potential employee would fib about their education, job positions, and information on their resume. So while this blog won’t be able to help you catch parents fibbing about mystical creatures, it will help you catch resume fraud and false education.
What To Look Out For – False Education
So what is false education? It’s when someone has on their resume that they graduated top of their class from Harvard or Yale, but in reality, they never even went to college. If you believed that applicant, you were just a victim of false education. But how do you know when you should check on these things? You have to trust someone, right? Well, yeah, but don’t trust them until you get everything verified. Just to be safe.
When you start to implement education verifications, the first thing I can tell you is you have to make sure you’re doing an education verification for every potential employee. You can’t just pick and choose because you think someone might be lying because that can land you in hot water if someone were to bring a discrimination claim against you. Be sure to add it to your policy today!
So we got you started on updating your policy to include education verification, but now lets talk about some of the things you should look out for.
When it comes to education and people getting their degrees, there’s no sure fire way to detect if someone is attempting to falsify their education. Heck, that’s why we’re verifying it. But based off what we see (and we do anywhere from 60-80 education verifications a day), common occurrences when people are attempting to falsify their education are “odd” degree titles (Bachelor’s Degree in Life Sciences) or when there’s an issue finding their information from the university they usually don’t fight very hard to get it corrected. If you go to a four year college and paid close to $100,000 for your education…you’re probably going to put up a little bit of a fight if someone claims there was any issue confirming that you graduated from your university.
“Alright, Robert, so I know what to look out for…but how do I ensure that I don’t get bamboozled?!”
Ah, the actual verification of the education. How does it get done? Well I can’t give you our entire secret sauce recipe to education verification, but I can tell you this much…always go back to the source! If you’re not sure of someone’s education history then contact the source and get it confirmed. You don’t want to hire a Yale graduate just to learn that they weren’t being honest. And if you still haven’t gotten your fix on education verification, check out our top verifier’s blog to learn 10 more things you didn’t know about education verification.
Recent News
I bet there are some readers who are still skeptical about the importance of doing education verifications. “Robert, I just don’t see the value in it. Anyone who applies to our job is 100% honest”. Yeah, I just laughed after reading that too. But what about the thousands of people caught buying fake degrees online? Did you hear about that? Oh man, these people were buying fake degrees and, actually, how about I just let you read the story yourself. Then you’ll see the value behind implementing education verification into your company policy.
What To Look Out For – Work History Fraud
We know people falsify information about their education…did you really think they wouldn’t do the same for their resume? Resume fraud is huge, but what should you look out for? Here’s a common list of things we see when applicants are fibbing on their resumes:
- Wrong job titles
- Length of time with the company
- Made up company or company they did not work for
“Alright, Robert, so that’s what we should look out for. But how do we stop it?”
That’s why resume verifications are so important. They’re able to confirm if everything on an applicant’s resume and past work history is true. It’s the same case as education verification…I can’t give you the secret sauce recipe to how we verify resumes, but I can give you this…always go back to the source! No I don’t mean the applicant, I mean their past employers. To confirm if their information is true check back with their past boss, call the company and confirm if they ever even worked for them. Heck, if they did work there, make sure to check that they actually worked there for the amount of time they stated on their resume. These are all things you have to make sure you’re looking out for. But also note, when you go back to the source and the applicant receives a bad reference don’t always put too much weight into that. That’s a whole other blog, learn how to handle what to do when your applicant gets a bad reference.
So What’s The Solution?
The common denominator here is always going back to the source. It’s repetitive, I know, but that’s your best bet to ensure that you’re not getting bamboozled by a potential applicant. They could be claiming that they graduated from Drake University and use to work for NASA. When in fact…they definitely did not.
“Robert that’s all fine and dandy, but I receive so many resumes and applications that I don’t have time to go back to the source for all of those…what do I do?”
You Don’t Have To Do This Alone
Just remember that you don’t have to do this alone. Here at Validity we understand that you might not have time to always go back to the source. So let us do it for you! I mean, how else will you learn our secret sauce recipe to education and resume verifications? Like I mentioned earlier our verifiers do anywhere from 60 – 80 education verifications a day, and 80 – 100 resume verifications a day. So we’re confident we can take it off your hands, and leave you at ease for every potential hire.
Verifications can be overwhelming, and honestly just a lot to deal with. But they don’t have to be.
Closing Thoughts
We’d love to know what you think, or answer any questions you may have. Please leave a comment below to tell us your thoughts. To learn more, or if you have any questions, please email me at rsanders@validityscreening.com. For more great blogs and content please subscribe to our blogs here.