Weeding Out Fake Degrees and Inflated Credentials On CVs

As hiring managers and recruiters, you know the multiple layers of review applicants encounter in the screening process, including background and professional reference checks as well as degree and publication verifications. For colleges and universities, ensuring faculty and staff have the degrees and credentials they claim to have earned is extraordinarily important. Institutions are built on the talent that administrations hire each day.

With some studies showing more than 50% of applicants lie on their resumes and more applicants feeling greater pressure to beef up their resumes to get ahead in competitive fields, this work is more important than ever. Here are a few ways to flag a resume that seems either too good to be true or not quite right:

• Out of order or missing credentials
  Traditionally, individuals earn a high school diploma or GED, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree or other professional degrees(s). If one of the degrees is missing or listed out of order, be sure to inquire about the omission or discrepancy.

• Expedited timing
  Flag a resume if you see someone claiming to have completed bachelor's, master or doctoral degrees in a very short timeframe. This may indicate a fraudulent account of their educational background or reflect the listed institution is a diploma mill.

• Sound-alike universities and unaccredited schools
  If you run into school names that seem legitimate but that you have never heard of, like American Central University or the University of Beverly Hills, call the school or look up the school online to verify that it exists and is accredited. Both of the two schools listed here are unaccredited schools and the University of Beverly Hills is now defunct.

The hardest fraud to uncover is from people who list accredited schools in the correct order and in a timeframe that seems appropriate. Contact the institution to confirm dates of attendance and graduation, the degrees awarded and the majors or areas of study listed. You can also require candidates to provide transcripts. This step will also help you identify the individuals who inflate their resumes by showing coursework as completed degrees or certifications.

Once you have verified your applicants' degrees, you can then assess the publications they list next. Read a great article by Inside Higher Ed Reporter Colleen Flaherty to learn more about the common ways higher ed applicants falsify and inflate the publications they list on their CVs.

While the work of a hiring manager and recruiter may seem like it never ends, the results of this extra effort can be that of an excellent work environment and outstanding place of learning.