談談簡歷內容造假的是與非

I was deeply shocked by a recent survey that suggested 30 per cent of job applicants embellished the truth or lied on a curriculum vitae. Can the figure really be that low? I had always assumed CVs were riddled with evasions, half-truths and downright whoppers. As a cynic, the news that 70 per cent of workers are scrupulously honest has shaken my lack of faith in my fellow humans. The only consolation is that people often fib in anonymous surveys, just as they do on résumés, which means the real proportion may be higher.
最近一項調查顯示，有30%的求職者在簡歷中美化事實或者造假，這讓我深感震驚。這一數字真的可能這樣低嗎？我向來認定，簡歷中充斥着遁辭、半真半假的事實和徹頭徹尾的謊話。作爲一名懷疑論者，這則70%的員工都謹嚴正直的消息，動搖了我對人類的信心缺失。唯一能讓我聊以自慰的是，人們通常在匿名調查中扯些小謊，就像他們在簡歷中那樣，而這意味着，真實的比例可能會更高。

One prediction rang true from the research by the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors. It was that the incentive for mendacity is growing, as unemployment balloons and competition for jobs rises. In coming months recruiters will therefore be bombarded with CVs making claims more misleading than the kind that got Corpus Christi college disqualified from the BBC's University Challenge.
英國教育評估人特許學會(Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors)所做的研究中，有一個預測聽上去真實可靠：隨着失業人數迅速膨脹，及就業競爭加劇，說謊的動機在不斷增強。因此，在未來數月內，招聘者將接到大量內容不實的簡歷，這些簡歷的欺騙性要比導致牛津大學聖體學院(Corpus Christi college)被取消由英國廣播公司(BBC)主辦的《大學對抗賽》(University Challenge)比賽資格的造假嚴重得多。

It was the same during the downturn of the early 1990s. Then, one acquaintance obtained a graduate traineeship at a large bank by bumping his third-class degree up to a 2:1. A journalist colleague meanwhile admitted to me that his degree from a top university was entirely fictional. Another contemporary explained away a year lost to bone idleness by telling prospective employers that he had been writing a field guide to the wild flowers of the Pyrenees. I might have lied on my own CV, if an east coast Scottish upbringing had not lumbered me with the subliminal conviction that I would burn for eternity in hell if I did.
這與上世紀90年代初經濟下滑時期的情況相同。當時，我的一個熟人在將他的三等學位擡高至二等一級(2:1)學位後，得到了一家大銀行培訓生一職。一位記者同僚同時向我承認，他的頂尖大學學位完全是捏造的。另一位同齡人在解釋遊手好閒浪費掉的一年時光時，搪塞稱他在寫一本有關比利牛斯山脈野花的野外指南。倘若不是蘇格蘭東海岸的成長教育讓我在潛意識裏堅信，如果我造假，就會在地獄裏永世受折磨，我可能也這樣做了。

Charles Thomas of Kroll, a company whose services include background checks on job applicants, says that inaccuracies on CVs divide into three main groups. First, there are honest mistakes, typically made when candidates muddle dates. Second, there is deliberate fibbing about qualifications. Mr Thomas says: “A lie told 20 years ago to get a job can become part of the liar's reality. So he tells it again when he switches jobs, even though he has become a successful finance director.” Third, applicants close up suspicious gaps in their employment history. In one case investigated by Kroll, a candidate turned out to have spent a three-month gap in prison for fraud.
服務內容包括求職者背景調查的Kroll公司的查爾斯?托馬斯(Charles Thomas)表示，簡歷不實大體分爲三類。第一種是無意造成的錯誤，通常是求職者搞混了日期。第二種，是故意在資歷方面撒些小謊。托馬斯表示：“一個在 20年前爲得到某份工作而撒下的謊，可以變成說謊者現實生活的一部分。那麼當換工作時，他還要再講一遍，儘管他已成爲一名成功的財務總監。”第三種，求職者爲了填補工作經歷中可疑的空白。Kroll調查過的一件案例中，一位求職者有3個月的空白被證明是因欺詐罪而關在監獄中。

About 65 per cent of businesses take up references for shortlisted job applicants, according to research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Fewer than half said they found out anything useful. This is hardly surprising now that the fear of litigation prevents past employers from saying anything more revealing than: “Yes, Derek worked for us. He has a beard and knows a bit about databases.” Less than 40 per cent of businesses bother to check academic and professional qualifications.
英國特許人事和發展協會(Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development)研究表明，約65%的企業會參看入圍求職者的推薦信。不足一半的企業表示，能從中得到一些有用的信息。這並不令人驚訝，由於擔心會惹上官司，昔日的僱主們不會揭露真相，除了：“是的，德里克(Derek)曾爲我們工作。他留着鬍子，對資料庫略懂一些。”不足40%的企業會費心覈查教育和職業資歷。

How can the honest candidate compete? The recession means that one job advertisement in a broadsheet newspaper can attract up to 700 applicants, reports Owen Morgan of Penna, a human resources consultancy. A junior HR officer will typically whittle these down to a long list, spending no more than 15 seconds examining each CV. The helot may simply run a key word search on CVs submitted electronically, freeing up a few minutes for a fag break. Kerwin Hack, a counsellor at HR consultancy Fairplace, therefore suggests larding CVs with phrases extracted from the job ad.
誠實的求職者怎樣去競爭？人力資源諮詢公司Penna的歐文?摩根(Owen Morgan)報告稱，經濟衰退意味着，報紙上一個招聘廣告能吸引多至700名申請者。人力資源部門的低級員工通常會精減出一份初選名單，他們閱讀每份簡歷的時間不超過15秒。這個沒地位的人可能僅對電子版的簡歷進行一下關鍵詞搜索，空出來幾分鐘時間抽支菸。人力資源諮詢公司Fairplace顧問克爾溫 ?哈克(Kerwin Hack)從而建議，從招聘廣告中摘取語句來點綴簡歷。

When I last encountered Mr Hack, he was discouraging a redundant investment banker from using the words “I really need the money” in an application for a new job. The cultural artefact that is the CV is undergoing rapid change, so there are other elements applicants may safely omit. Date of birth is one. If you are over 40, you will increase your chance of an interview by leaving this out. You will not get the job, but at least there will be free coffee and biscuits. The “marital status” category is also dropping from use. If you are female, “just married and already ordering nursery curtains” positions you poorly anyway. “Leisure and hobbies” is another superfluity.
當我上一次碰見哈克時，他正勸阻一名遭解僱的投資銀行家在申請一份新工作時使用“我真的需要錢”這樣的字眼。簡歷這種文化的時代產物正經歷着急速的變化，因此有些因素也許能夠安全地省略掉。出生日期就是其一。如果你年逾40，爲了增加獲得面試的機會，你可以剔除這一點。你不會得到這份工作，但至少會有免費的咖啡和餅乾。“婚姻狀況”這一欄也別留着。如果你是女性，“剛剛結婚，並已準備要孩子了”怎麼都會讓你陷入悲慘的境遇。“業餘愛好”也是多餘的。

What troubles my moralistic soul most about résumé fraud is that the perpetrators often do the jobs they misappropriate rather well. The academic qualifications of Patrick Imbardelli, Asia boss of InterContinental Hotels, were exposed as bogus only during routine checks triggered by his elevation to the board. Colleagues described Neil Taylor, whose fake degree secured him a ?115,000 salary as chief executive of an NHS trust, as “highly competent”.
有關簡歷欺詐，在道義層面令我最鬱悶的是，說謊者往往把不正當得來的工作做得相當出色。只有在晉升入董事會而帶來的常規覈查中，洲際酒店集團 (InterContinental Hotel)亞洲區首席執行官殷德利(Patrick Imbardelli)的學歷才被曝光是僞造的。尼爾?泰勒(Neil Taylor)的假學歷讓他獲得了一份年薪11.5萬英鎊的工作——英國國民保健服務(NHS)一家信託公司的首席執行官，但同事們形容他“高度勝任”。

Crooks and Walter Mittys are always with us. However, the averagejob applicant would be more inclined to honesty if more companies displayed it themselves. Instead, recruitment is often an orgy of hyperbole. In its job advertisement the solid, ordinary business with offices in Birkenhead becomes “a dynamic, market-leading multinational”. The solid, ordinary candidate responds as “a passionate customer champion and intrapreneur”. Desire burns ever hotter on both sides, with promises of meteoric career advancement and soaring sales performance. But the infatuation expires in the cold light of the first morning that the new recruit reports for work. After coition, all animals are sad, as the Romans used to say. It would be better to restrain expectations and avoid such disappointment. And employers should check successful candidates' qualifications. It only takes five minutes.
我們身邊總不缺騙子和幻想狂。但如果更多的企業自己也表現得誠實，一般的求職者也會更傾向於誠實。而事實上，招聘常常是沒邊兒的誇張。在招聘廣告裏，一家位於伯肯黑德的踏實的普通企業，變成了“具有活力的、市場領先的跨國企業”。而實誠的普通求職者則迴應以“一名充滿激情的客戶維護者和內部創新者 ”。隨着令人眼花繚亂的事業提升和志向遠大的銷售業績等承諾，雙方的渴望都燃燒得愈發熾烈。但這種醉心癡迷在新員工第一天報到的寒冷氣氛中就煙消雲散了。就像羅馬人曾說的那樣，激情過後，任何一種動物都會感到悲傷。最好還是抑制期望，避免這種失望。而僱主應當覈查一下求職成功者的簡歷。這隻需要5分鐘。

Words and Expressions

Embellish: v. 美化，修飾，潤色
Be riddled with: 佈滿，充滿，The report was riddled with errors. 這篇報道錯誤百出
Whopper: n. 彌天大謊
Fid: v. 撒小謊
Mendacity: n. 謊言，虛假
Subliminal: adj. 潛意識的
Fag: n. 香菸
ordering nursery curtains: 暗指準備要生孩子了
Superfluity: n. 多餘物
Misappropriate: v. 盜用，挪用
Bogus: adj. 假的
Intrapreneur: n. 內部創新者，大公司之獲得充分自由及財務支持以開創新產品、新服務、新制度，而且不必遵守公司經常習慣的職員