| 1- Script
of Recording
BBC News Online: Business
Saturday, 15 January, 2000, 17:53 GMT
CV LIARS FACE COMPUTER CHECKS
It is a temptation thousands succumb to in the competitive battle
to secure a dream job. Whether it involves notching a degree up
a grade or turning time spent loafing into an action-packed period
of personal development, company bosses say lying on curricula vitae
is increasingly common among job hunters. But now bogus candidates
are to be exposed by a computer vetting system available to employers.
Potential employees boasting of non-existent qualifications or
experience can now be checked out by employers - who can refer their
CVs to a Candidate Verifier system. Credentials can be checked simply
by contacting a telephone call centre where a database stores lists
of academic qualifications, past employment and membership of professional
bodies. The facility is being marketed to companies in the wake
of a survey which showed 71% of bosses had encountered serious lying
on CVs.
Experian - the information company which did the research and is
helping to launch the new facility - said nearly one in four bosses
had found people lying about previous experience. Lies about higher
educational qualifications were the next most common followed by
salary and then secondary qualifications such as A levels and GCSEs.
The average cost of recruiting an employee was found to be £3,000.
A spokesman for Experian said there had been thousands of examples
of people lying to get jobs. These included a deputy headteacher
who falsely claimed to have a degree, a doctor who was barely educated
as a lab technician, and a man who stole £4m from two banks to whom
he supplied false references. "The problem of misrepresentation
on CVs, and particularly in the area of educational qualifications
raises very important issues for employers," said Richard Fiddis,
chief operating officer at Experian. "Most employers find the cost
of checking qualifications prohibitive, yet the implication of employing
unsuitable people can be huge, particularly in cases such as teachers,
doctors or care workers. At the moment, the door of employment is
open to unscrupulous job applicants and this situation makes a mockery
of educational qualifications along with the ethic of hard work
at school and university."
The system, provided with the help of the Higher Education Statistic
Agency, relies on the consent of applicants who are provided with
copies of data supplied to employers. The cost of checking out potential
employees varies but is "normally a matter of a few pounds", an
Experian spokesman said.
End of Recording
2- Summary
For more help, click here: writing
tips
Most Common Mistakes :
Most students had no difficulty understanding the recording. However,
major blunders were to be found. To name but a few :
- The computer vetting system, the telephone call center, the
verifier system
- "bosses had encountered" was misheard as "accounted".
- A levels and GCSEs went unnoticed (check the basics on the British
school system in past AN 111 material).
- The rephrasing of such words as :qualifications (credentials,
degrees, competence, abilities, etc.) candidates (applicants,
job seekers, job hunters), lie (falsehood, misrepresentation)
- The figures (one in four, 71%, £3, 000) were often inaccurately
quoted.
- NB : Sum up in your own words. Direct quotation of the text
will be counted against you really means what it says. Understanding
is half the job. You are also expected to rephrase what you grasped
in your own words.
Suggested summary
Sum up the recording in no more than 150 words. NB : Sum up
in your own words. Direct quotation of the text will be counted
against you
The January 15, 2002 BBC News Online Article entitled CV
Liars face computer checks raises the thorny issue of misrepresentation
on CVs. An information company called Experian investigated this
trend by carrying out a survey which underscored that 71% of bosses
have come across lies on CVs, that is to say one in four employers.
They found out that lying on CVs covers the whole gamut of white
lies on school grades, altered or made up academic qualifications
and increased salaries. The article quotes examples of grave misconducts
in such sensitive areas of recruitment as education, health services
and social work. It further underlines that lying runs counter to
(undermines) the collective work ethic. It ends up mentioning that
the new Experian database is marketed to help bosses check out on
future applicants at a very reasonable price -a few pounds- compared
to the £3,000 paid for any standard recruitment.
created by: Genevieve Cohen-Cheminet
3- Opinion
Question
Opinion question (no more than 300 words) : Lying on CVs "makes
a mockery of educational qualifications along with the ethic of
hard work at school and university." Do you approve of this statement.
Justify your answer with appropriate examples.
For more help, click here: writing
tips
Most Common Mistakes :
- Most opinion questions were unnecessarily virtuous, given that
students' statements were not to be pitted against personal CVs
and actual behaviors. At this stage of students' careers, there
was no point in pledging their honor that they would never ...,
etc.
- Virtue did not make up for the lack of a basic analysis of the
statement. It had two separate parts. Most papers neglected the
need to explain what both meant in the English-speaking context.
- Many students thought they just had to either defend or blame
the right to lie. They overlooked the need to analyse the statement.
No matter what students chose to defend, the right to lie or the
rejection of lying on CVs, they had to tie up their choice to
an assessment of "educational qualifications" and of "the ethic
of hard work".
Tips along these lines
- Starting with qualifications, one has to notice that both in
the US and GB academic qualifications are not centralised and
nation-based but locally granted by local universities. This system
based on devolution has its clear advantages naturally. But, it
may allow for greater difficulties to weed out unscrupulous applicants.
The authenticity of grades is more difficult to manipulate in
a nation-based, centralised system which demands certification
of grades by an independent body (usually certified civil servants
in Town Halls).
- This next leads to the issue of the value granted to degrees
in our post-industrial societies. The recording implicitly shows
how dependent we have grown on academic qualifications. The days
of the self-made men/women are over in that professionals today
are predominantly college-trained. Degrees are not only the proof
that a student has attended classes on an attentive basis. They
also guarantee that its recipient has reached the level of attainment
which is a prerequisite for most jobs. Naturally, one does not
imply that expertise cannot be obtained another way. One merely
suggests that an academic qualification provides an objective,
neutral and impartial assessment of a person's competence in a
given field.
- Some students bitterly complained that degrees are no guarantee
of competence. Fair enough. But one may wonder if the other way
round is true too. Some students argued in favor of lying on CVs
claiming that if one thinks that one has the abilities guaranteed
by the degree, then one may lie since one is equal to the person
who is granted the degree. Now, this reasoning is flawed in that
nothing warrants that a person without a degree has the same competence
as the person who does have a degree. University qualifications
are meant to provide an objective, impartial assessment of a person's
level of attainment. A person's individual assessment of his/her
worth is not good enough.
- Other students argued that lying on CVs was acceptable insofar
as inexperienced job seekers are faced with job offers which clearly
spell out hands-on experience as a major selection criterion.
Lying is thus felt to be necessary to bypass an impossible first
obstacle. Unfortunately, this argument does not hold water either.
One may get experience and training through internship periods
at a very early age. Naturally students' experience varies greatly
but one may venture to say that internship is available to all,
no matter what their social and economic background is.
- Other students also claimed that lying was acceptable inasmuch
as they felt it was up to the employer to check, double check
and cross examine job seekers. In case the employer should overlook
a lie, should an employer fail to screen out a dishonest, unscrupulous
job hunter, then it is too bad for the employer. The job seeker
may well profit from a boss's foolishness. Well, this line of
argument is rotten since the very same job applicant would probably
expect his/her boss to be candid and honest about working conditions,
salaries, promotion, retirement and social security benefits.
If workers and bosses are not expected to conform to the same
values of truthfulness, which side is allowed to cheat ? Working
in the same company is only possible if it is conceived as a partnership
in which both sides share the same code of conduct.
- ("the mockery of the ethic of hard work") Other students argued
that lying on CVs undermined the worth or value of a degree. Some
felt that diplomas are a huge investment for students and for
the state and that lying makes light of this investment.
- Most students failed to mention that our academic system of
meritocracy is also the backbone of our democracy. Let me explain.
The 1789 French Revolution, the 1776 American Constitution tried
to abolish the privileges of birth and fortune and replaced the
old notion of aristocracy with that of meritocracy. Only the best
and brightest, only the outstanding students should be rewarded
with degrees, jobs and promotion. So goes the common wisdom. The
ethic of hard work means that abilities and effort should be rewarded.
No matter who one is, no matter what one's economic, social, ethnic
or gender background is, one will be rewarded according to one's
abilities. This work ethic can naturally be traced to the old
Biblical value of hard work ("thou shalt work in the sweat of
thy brow"), and to the Puritan work ethic. Lying on CVs means
that one claims the reward of hard work without the pain and suffering
pertaining to hard work.
created by: Genevieve Cohen-Cheminet
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CV
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