The Pretenders

People who oversell themselves belong in two places: Bollywood movies and reality TV shows. There is no room for them in the modern workplace, HR managers tell Viren Naidu
   We’ve all seen hoardings of brands endorsing weight-loss techniques that read something like, ‘Lose up to five kilos a week without diet or exercise’. In all probability, the hoarding will also have a blown-up picture of an unrealistically skinny model pouting disdainfully at onlookers. And though we all know that there is no easy way to lose weight, we are ready to believe at least some of the exaggerated promises the ad makes.

   Overselling is the first rule of advertising. Any brand requires aggressive promotion, be it a product brand, employer brand or employee brand. These days, the ‘employer’ brand is being hard-sold in the job market, which is ready to throw money at anyone who has the right skills. But if you thought it was that easy to pretend to be better than you are, think again…HR managers too are doing their homework!

OVER-RATED…

HR managers confess to frequently
   encountering candidates who try to impress them by claiming to be God’s gift to organisations. This is overselling at its worst. Renuka Krishna, VP-Talent Search and Recruitment, KPIT Cummins Infosystems Ltd., has a memorable story to narrate: “We had this occasion once when we were recruiting for a rather difficult position in the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) department. After searching various databases and sifting through many short-listed applications, we came across one candidate who we thought was a perfect fit. We carried out a few rounds of telephonic interviews (since he was an outstation candidate) and were highly impressed by his credentials. However, standard protocol followed at KPIT Cummins calls for a face-to-face interaction. Hence, we arranged for a video-conference and during the course of the interaction, we realised that he wasn’t half as impressive as he seemed during the telephonic interview. It was then that we realised that he was not the person we had talked to earlier – the candidate had tried to fool us by making us speak with someone else!”
   The above instance is just one of the many doing the rounds. Atul Srivastava, Senior VP and Head, Corporate HRD, Datamatics says, “We have had instances where they say that they know various forms of technology much
beyond their grasp. Many a time, the candidate is nodding or responding in monosyllables (yes or no) to direct questions like ‘have you worked on EJB or Struts?’ Further questioning often bares the truth.” Experts say that with the entry of MNCs and increasing competition, there are many opportunities floating in the job market. The market itself has become a job-seekers’ market. “Hence, companies offering employment also tend to package their offerings in a manner that excite jobseekers. In a quest for fast growth, both professional and monetary, job-seekers too tend to oversell themselves by exaggerating their achievements. Also, when it comes to highlighting their strengths and weaknesses, job-aspirants tend to disguise their positive traits as weaknesses in order to impress the interviewer,” says Rajiv Phadke, Executive Director-HR and Business Development, Angel Broking. Krishna makes an attempt to understand what it is that drives such candidates to oversell themselves, “People are keen on getting high paying jobs and senior titles, early in their careers. They are young and ambitious; but lack the experience and perseverance required of the position and command higher remuneration. It is a highly competitive environment where supply far exceeds demand and plush jobs are far and few between. Hence, they are under pressure to put their best foot forward. Add to this peer pressure and a desire to bag the best offers amongst other batch mates.” “Any method we devise is not entirely fool-proof. But, candidates cannot fool experienced professionals who stay one or two steps ahead. As part of a closeknit community of HR professionals, word spreads fast and we keep ourselves abreast with such instances,” states Srivastava.

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Iti Kumar, Director-HR, GlobalLogic shares an incident that could be an eye-opener for several recruiting managers, “In one case, a desperate candidate began overselling herself by using a lot of jargon and even threw around names of big employers whom she has been associated with in the past. The excess overselling that she demonstrated made us cautious and when a reference check was conducted, it was found that she never worked with those companies and her claims of being an experienced professional were a big hoax.” Nina Woodard, Director-Business Development, SHRM India, too, recalls a funny incident that happened in India a few years ago, during the interview process. Woodard interviewed two candidates who were back then, working for the same employer and with each other as colleagues. Both of them gave her the exact same story about their accomplishments in the current organisation and both indicated that they had been the key person responsible for the success of the project they described. They were, of course, completely unaware of the fact that Woodard had interviewed them both. She finally used a variety of behavioural interviewing techniques to get to the fact of the matter and settle who was lying and who wasn’t once and for all!

OVER-EXAGGERATED…

Vivek Govilkar, Senior Vice President HR and Training, i-flex Solutions suggests a way in which one can try to combat this trend, “When a candidate tries to talk about their achievements, ask the person for achievements which are quantifiable and verifiable. There are always chances of a candidate making generalised statements like, “I was the architect of the company’s sales strategy.” If so, ask him/her how his/her contribution has helped boost the sales of the company.” Kumar enlists a few ways on how you can distinguish an overselling candidate from a genuine one: Interviewer should ask a logical series of questions that can help the interviewer gauge the knowledge quotient of the candidate. The HR manager should ask the candidate to submit the proof or establish the proof for whatever he/she is claiming. When asked about his/her weaknesses, a genuine candidate would sincerely point them out and also tell what he/she is doing to overcome it unlike an overselling candidate.
So is overselling bad? Experts say that it all depends in what context the term is actually used. If it is used to sell a washing powder, the consequences can be reparable but if it is used to sell medication to an ailing patient, the consequences can be fatal. In the corporate context though, the trend will be short lived. As HR experts say, “Eventually, we will find out!”
viren.naidu@timesgroup.com