EMPLOYERS BEWARE AS CV FIBS ARE ON THE RISE
READERS who have ever been tempted to “embellish” their CV will probably remember the story of disgraced hotel executive, Patrick Imbardelli, who lost everything he had worked for because of such an indiscretion.
Imbardelli was forced to resign from his role as head of Asia Pacific at InterContinental Hotels in 2007, just weeks before he was due to join the board.
A tip-off led to a check of his credentials, which revealed that he had been somewhat economical with the truth and did not, in fact, hold a BA in business studies and hotel management from Victoria University in Australia. Nor did he achieve a BSc and an MBA from Cornell University in the US.
He had attended some classes at the institutions in question, but had received no qualifications. He left the industry after 25-years, his reputation in tatters.
But this cautionary tale does not appear to have done much to stem a new wave of CV-contortionists, and a new survey has shown that more banking candidates than ever before are lying on their CVs.
Powerchex, the pre-employment screening firm, has found that one in five financial services applicants fudged the truth in their applications, a 12 per cent rise on 2008 figures.
“The pressure of the recession job market seems to have led more applicants to believe they should lie or make embellished claims to get jobs,” said Powerchex managing director Alexandra Kelly.
Omissions include hiding criminal records – something the survey shows to be prevalent amongst wannabe-brokers – and a six-fold rise in the number of applicants attempting to hide County Court judgments and bankruptcies.
And of course there is the classic CV fib: why you left your last role. Sir Fred Goodwin, be warned. They do check.
EXHAUST FUMES
We may be green-eyed over the fees they have been charging of late, but spare a thought for the City’s advisers the next time you are feeling a bit snowed under.
Boutique investment bank Evercore Partners has had to file a petition with a US bankruptcy judge in an attempt to secure fees related to the General Motors Chapter 11 filing.
Supporting documents show that the firm created or reviewed an astonishing 4,000 spreadsheets, amounting to over 1m printed pages of data, and a further 1,700 PowerPoint presentations over a 12-month period working on GM’s case.
Not only this, but one Evercore managing director is claimed to have sent or received more the 23,500 GM-related emails, accompanied by no less than 11,700 attachments, amounting to 422,000 printed pages.
Assuming a five-day working week (humour me), that’s 1,623 pages a day. And no holiday.
Now that is not the kind of work that you would want to do for free.
PADDLE POWER
Speaking of hard work, Morgan Stanley’s Kent Perry and Reuters’ Real Estate’s Jan Skopecek fly out to Prague on Friday to represent Great Britain in the World Dragonboat championships 2009.
Kent, Skopecek and their 18 team mates – some of whom are world-class kayakers and canoeists – beat other hopefuls in time trials to earn their places on the boat, and have been averaging 12-16 training sessions a week in preparation.
I am reliably informed that Dragonboat racing is a sport that we Brits are actually fairly good at, and the boys have got their sights firmly set on the gold.
But if all that sounds a bit too strenuous, fear not. Our very own London Mayor Boris Johnson will today unveil a far more laid back way to spend the bank holiday weekend.
From Thursday “One Magic Summer” will hit Trafalgar Square, with deck chairs to kick back on and free weekend entertainment until Bank Holiday Monday.
Boris is hoping City-dwellers will make the most of “a variety of comedy performances, street theatre and even magic tricks is planned to evoke memories of the great British summer holiday”. In keeping with memories of the British summer, don’t forget your brolly.