Things Lie About Their Identities Just Like People Do

Well, this is ironic, given my last column about the need for “know your employee” processes. Marianna Spring, the BBC’s first disinformation correspondent, has been called out for embellishing the truth on her resume while applying for a job few years ago! Is that really disinformation though? I mean, come on, we’ve all exaggerated our capabilities on a resume haven’t we? It’s the normal course of human affairs, just as hiring managers lying to the candidates that they are interviewing. Maybe that’s about to end though, as continuous real-time online reputation management becomes the norm and the provenance of people (as well as things) becomes public, unforgeable and immutable.

People And Provenance

Given that candidate fraud has pretty much doubled since the pandemic (and that a fifth of job hunters cheat on tests), recruitment clearly has some challenges. Since it’s been years since I actually interviewed a candidate, I can’t say what the modern approach to this sort of thing is. If I were hiring someone tomorrow, I’d probably look at their LinkedIn profile rather than their resume. Having said that, while LinkedIn estimates that only 15-20% of candidates are dishonest in the way they present themselves, which I am sure must be on the low side, the need to create some infrastructure around employment credentials would seem obvious.