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Imaginative IT contractors are the most likely workers in Britain’s financial services industry to have begun making up ‘facts’ on their CVs. More than one in ten IT contractors questioned admitted making false claims on their job applications, a 92% increase on the number since the first half of 2007. Yet CVs from the contractors surveyed showed fewer discrepancies than CVs of other financial services staff, including bankers, hedge fund managers and insurers. In fact, stockbrokers were the only financial staff out of six major job sectors, including IT, not to have told more lies on their CV since June of last year to get a job. “The main reason for the increase [in lies on IT contractors’ CVs] is that the sheer number of contractors working in financial services increased dramatically. “We saw financial clients falling over each other to get contractors. Unfortunately that’s not the case anymore,” said Alexandra Kelly, a director of Powerchex, which indexed 3,876 job applicants. Around the second half of last year, IT contractors were “extremely busy” and a shortage of specialist skills forced clients to “scrape the bottom” in terms of their hires. Powerchex, which security vets staff for financial jobs, also said a larger number of contractors had become astute in what financial clients expect to see on their CVs. “This is just a sign of the times for contractors;” Ms Kelly said of the findings, “they are learning very very quickly what banks and other institutions require of them, which is more and more on the CV.” Across financial services, the incidence of CV lies was 17 per cent, up by about a third from last year, with qualifications the most popular section for candidates to falsify. Among IT contractors in financial services, the dates of work history were overwhelmingly the main area of embellishment, targeted by offending contractors about 30% of the time. “[This is] as you would imagine because contractors have many contract dates and don’t always keep good records. They just put down what they think the dates were, roughly. “There are also sometimes worried about having a gap on their CVs,” Ms Kelly said. “But as the market tightens, it will be more important for contractors to write their CVs accurately and correctly because it could be the difference between getting the role and not getting it.” Jul 25, 2008 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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