Employment scam by Indian consultancies in US.

[johnroshan]

I can't believe this shit continues and so many companies keep hiring from them.

I graduated with a Masters in EE in December and I was approached by a financial software consultancy. They said that my software experience was enough to land me a job in the financial sector. I was naive and I accepted the offer and underwent training at their premises. After completing a 2 month training, they said that they would create my resume and market me to their clients.

Around that time I saw some of my friend's resume and saw that they had like 8 to 10 years of false experience, when they were actually freshers with absolutely no experience. I went and confronted the HR about this. He just looked at me in a funny way and said, "Do you want a job and money? This is very common. Everybody does it." I was then taken to a tour of the marketing section where they teach you to cheat vendors and interviewers when they ask about your false experience. I was shocked and I just walked out. Never returned.

Some of my friends stayed and they now work at Citibank, JP Morgan Chase, and several wall street firms as Team Leads and Managers when they don't have even a single year of financial experience. The consultancy that I worked with has at least 5 new students joining them every week. Their job placement rate is very high. What I can't seem to comprehend is that how is this still going on? How are the companies not noticing that someone who supposedly has 10 years of software experience doesn't seem to know how to remote login into a server(true story)?

This is just one consultancy. There are literally thousands of them in the tristate area. Every one of them adds a minimum of 10 years of false experience to freshers resume and market them to firms. With the market downturn and other jobs scarce, so many students are flocking towards consultancies.

This also probably explains the usual perception of Indian H1Bs not being competent.

Is this illegal? I believe it should be.


I have a question to you all? Were you aware of such scams and its prevalence before?


John.

[Hannah Bell]

1. i wasn't, but that's interesting.

[Vehl]

2. These consultancies should be brought to task before they ruin the reputation of everyone

Is there a way you could file a complaint about this consultancy?

even though i have not heard of this practice by the consultancies before,
resume padding is a most grievous offense. how did they think they can get away with this?

[johnroshan]

4. What would the complaint be?

The consultancy makes people sign a contract that expressly states that the resume is prepared in consultation with the job seeker and the consultancy is NOT responsible for any misrepresentation. They have a legal loop hole to slip through.

Lying on your resume is frowned upon everywhere but is not exactly a legal offense. When the same thing is done on a huge scale however, it can cause so many problems. Real professionals with 5 years experience will be routinely ignored in favor of a "10 year experienced" guy who is willing to work for less.

[Vehl]

6. seems like these consultancies cover their asses pretty well

If any complaint is filed, I'm sure they will drop the blame on the job seeker...thanks to the contract they have.


and yeah...lying in resume is not a crime...but those who are caught will have it adversely affect their career....and these consultancies are tempting those people to take the risk without letting them know of the consequences. typical profit first mentality. :(


I understand your predicament...but hopefully those with the so called "10 year experience" will be recognized as the frauds they are ,soon, cos its hard to hide such stuff at work.Maybe it would lead to a better review of the resume of the applicants in the future.

[rucky]

3. I wasn't aware, but it sounds about right.

And the employers go for it because your "experienced" friends are willing to work for cheaper than someone with that actual experience (plus they'll have something to hold over the people when HR "discovers" the doctored resume)

What I don't understand is in software development & engineering, you can't really fake it for long.

[LiberalFighter]

5. I don't believe it is against the law. BUT

if those companies that hire the people find out they fake their resume they can be fired without any difficulty. Unless, they have a very good contract. A union contract in most cases would not protect an employee in that situation.

[drm604]

7. They add 8 to 10 years to someone just out of college?

Don't the applicants look a little young for their resumes?

[Liberal_in_LA]

8. sometimes the fake resumes catch up with them 6 months after hire

I worked with people who were fired 6 months into the job, when Human resources finished the background check

[Skittles]

9. believe me, their inflated "expertise" does not go unnoticed

I've had Indian folk with so-called masters IT degrees ask me questions high school kids would know

[The Backlash Cometh]

10. There is a practical reason for them to look for people who are willing to lie on their resumes.

Because they're looking for unethical yes men or women.

[xchrom]

11. I'll rec this - but it's really a quantity problem.

I'm 4 square against h1 b visas -- but I can't verify #s from this.

[musette_sf]

12. Been working in enterprise resource planning systems for 15+ years

And I can confirm that this scam is not only prevalent, but has gained some new twists.

One of the newer tricks is played on firms that engage consultants based on phone screenings.

Consultancy sends faked resume, based on job requirements. Resume magically matches the open posting. Phone interviews are set up.

All phone interviews are performed by the consultancy's in-house expert. I mean, all guys with Indian accents sound alike, right? :sarcasm:

Then, a completely unqualified candidate (NOT the guy on the phone interview) shows up at the job site.

We've had at least two of these in recent memory. One of them made my life a living hell for three months on a project with no slack.

Tip-offs include:

* Does not know the most basic functions in standard productivity applications (recent examples: doesn't know search and replace in word processor app; doesn't know sorting and filters in spreadsheet app).

* Will not respond at all to clear, detailed email messages asking for clear, detailed information on program functionality. On the programs that he supposedly had written himself.

* Will not directly answer any question asked face-to face or over the phone regarding clear information on program functionality. Will not leave voice mail response.

* In war rooms, frequently sits in corner holding lengthy sotto voce conversations on the phone in homeland language.

* In test labs, frequently sits next to contractor from same consultancy, holds lengthy sotto voce conversations in homeland language.

* If question has been asked, no response until next day. Will not respond via email. Will not leave voice mail response. Insists on face to face discussions. New questions asked in face to face discussions cannot be answered.

* Leaves no email or voice mail trail through which ineptness and failure can be documented.

It took 90 days (of hell doing my work AND his to meet the dates) to remove Mr. Fake from his assignment.

Lesson learned: Always interview prospective consultants face to face after the phone interview. Frame as many questions as possible in a business scenario, requiring true experience and skill to properly answer. And make sure your interview questions are NOT from the plethora of canned interview questions available at too many shady online places.

As for prevalence, suffice it to say that 10-15 years ago, I participated in online forums salient to the applications and workstreams in which I specialize. 10-15 years ago, these forums were pretty good places to post a thorny question and get a couple of good answers. Also good to research archives to see if someone else has written previously about a thorny question you are facing. In those days, people who asked idiotic ERP 101 questions, or who asked for free help to solve complex issues (and did not even know enough to ask the questions correctly), were basically laughed out of the forum, told in no uncertain terms that they were completely unqualified for the job they'd lowballed away from someone who actually knew their stuff, and quoted the going rate for a REAL solution to their issue.

These days, these same forums are virtually useless. It seems that *all* the posts are either Remedial ERP Basics (if you're asking these kinds of questions, someone else's ass should be in your chair at the jobsite); requests for free consulting for complex issues (if you're asking these kinds of questions, you're trying to bail your sorry oversold fake ass out for free); requests for free Vulcan mind melds (no, I will NOT send you a detailed implementation guide, documentation from my project, and sample custom code for X system/module/scenario); or advice on how freshers can get hired with no experience.

:argh:

[grantcart]

13. You should put together a company that will vet candidates with

totally objective blind testing and provide results to the employers.


Based on the results from the HR guy it sounds as if there is a real need in the market for somebody to objectively test applicants and do back ground checks on resumes.


If you can identify a problem that is reoccuring and costing companies money then you can come up with a solution that will save them money and you could turn it into a lucrative business.


Sounds like an outstanding business opportunity for the person with the right skill set.


edited to add


OPM does this for government agencies. They have standard testing and testers in major markets. There is no corruption or funny stuff.


Honesty and credibility are in short supply in the market. If you can figure out how to merchandise it and make it relevant to solving a problem you can make money by addressing it.