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.

Is Education and Success Linked

There is no doubt that a good, quality early education forms one of the basis of becoming successful in society. However beyond a school education, this has been questioned by many successful people, who have either dropped out of College or built up successful businesses at an early age.

Some of our most successful people, do not have a University degree, notably Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs. Others like the founder of Virgin, Richard Branson, dropped out of College, and became one of the UK’s most successful businessmen. Facebook users may be aware that the business founder, Mark Zuckerberg, dropped out of Harvard and focused on creating one of today’s most successful global on-line social networking sites.

Investment Education Overview

Global Investment Education

Investors in Asia and Asia Pacific are getting increasingly sophisticated in the knowledge of investment know-how, strategies and stay up to date with financial instruments. However, it is still the US and UK which begins innovating and coming up with new financial products. For example, Asia only recently introduced CFDs and carbon trading, replicating their western counterparts. Likewise, the general Asian population tends to educate themselves based on the investment instruments available to them, which often lags behind western counterparts. Asians still rely heavily on face to face learning, while in the US and UK, online learning through webinars and videos is prevalent.

Asia Investment Education

One channel which is increasingly popular in Asia is the attendance of Investment Seminars. There are numerous vendors in the cities of Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Indonesia and Japan who teach retail investors how to invest. Topics cover a wide range from stocks, funds, options, futures, warrants, forex, and even alternative investments such as property and wine. The downside is that such seminars are often very expensive, averaging US$2k for a 3-day seminar. Many retails investors also fall prey to get rich quick vendors as Asia Investment Education is highly unregulated. That being said, the Asian population is increasingly affluent and the demand for investment education is thriving, attracting many western trainers to set up training hubs in Asian cities. It is not uncommon to find international trainers who fly down to Asia on weekends, conducting seminars from city to city. The key hurdle for such a business in Asia is the language barrier. For example, Indonesians prefer listening to Bahasa and Taiwanese prefer Mandarin etc.