When dealing with people I find there are certain things I consider an intelligence test. Recently in the paper there was an article that confirmed my thoughts.
A man planned to rob a restaurant and was biding his time waiting for the customers to leave. His idea of remaining inconspicuous was to sit and complete a job application while he waited. Not bad so far, right? Wait, what’s that on the application? His real name and his uncle’s phone number. Duh! Needless to say, the police had no trouble catching up with him.
Another favorite of mine is the applicant’s reference list. Many companies don’t bother checking the references provided by the applicant because, duh, who would provide a name of someone who isn’t going to sign your praises? Well, start checking those references. While you might think it’s obvious, not everyone does. I’ve even called a past supervisor that was listed and the supervisor berated the employee performance and was really glad he was gone. Oh, and he didn’t recommend hiring him.
Lies on a job application are another. However, this only really works well if you are conducting background checks (which I highly recommend). Since you have to mention on a job application that you conduct background checks and/or drug testing, you’d think applicants would understand that the information on the job application must match what turns up on the background check. However, the applicant continues to try to lie their way out of the "mix-up." Degrees are the biggie here. If your position requires a degree, you really should have the degree listed on the job application verified through a background check. It’s difficult to verify degrees on your own, which may be why so many applicants try to fake it.
What’s on your duh list?
