Resume Exaggeration in Asia Pacific

While there are lots of public statistics about resume exaggeration in North America, the same statistics are always lacking in the Asia Pacific region. Having worked in the pre-employment background industry in both North America and Asia, I am often being asked the question for the difference in job candidate behaviours in resume exaggeration for the two regions.

Similar to the North America region, resume exaggeration is a serious issue in Asia Pacific. According to our survey study with The University of Hong Kong, over 62% of survey respondents admitted that they have exaggerated on their resume such as their previous positions held, job responsibilities and years of experience. 33% admitted that they have exaggerated not only for a little but for a fair amount to get their current job. In an interview with some of the 33% group participants, they stated that they believe resume exaggeration is a norm in the marketplace and it is of their disadvantage not to act the same way.

We have also interviewed over 20 HR directors in Asia Pacific with regional responsibilities. Their expectation for the percentage of job candidate exaggerating on resume varies from 20% to 60%. This means many already aware of resume exaggeration happening in their recruitment process.

In the Asia Pacific region, education exaggeration is a bigger issue compared to North America. For our own statistics of a random sample for the past 3 years, 15% of the people screened have exaggerated their education qualifications. The exaggerations include printing a fake degree of a well-known university, buying a fake degree from a fake university and claiming to have graduated from a prestige university but never went there or failed to graduate.

The serious education exaggeration issue happening in Asia Pacific could be explained by the fact that many organizations in Asia Pacific view education claims or a degree program as a minimum requirement for many of their entry level positions. On the other hand, North America employers would often value work experience over education qualification.

Many of the job candidates exaggerating their education qualification know that HR department do not do an education check up. HR department will not stay till very late to do overseas degree verification. Thus, these job candidates are able to move form job to job and company to company with a fake degree.