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Enemy at the Gates
213
that never happened, professional memberships that do not exist,
awards and commendations never received, letters of recommendation
written by applicants themselves, even fake education, degrees,
and professional credentials (for example, a license to practice medicine),
among others.
To uncover possible psychopathic deceit, it is essential that every
piece of information contained on the résumé be verified. This is
time intensive but worth the effort. However, résumé verification is
usually done after the interviewing phase, when the choice is down
to two or three candidates, and always after the candidates give permission
to do so. This puts the hiring manager at a disadvantage during
the interview, because he or she has only the résumé data to go
on, and the psychopath is so good at lying.
At the very least, education and professional credentials should
be checked before the initial interview. Education can be verified
through the registrar’s office at the university cited on the résumé,
and should include type of degree (such as a BS/BA or MS), year,
and area (finance, business, engineering, and so on). Sometimes applicants
misrepresent their actual degree by substituting something
that sounds more impressive (for example, engineering is a more difficult
field of study than engineering technology). These details
should be carefully checked.
Professional credentials and licenses, especially those granted by
the government to protect the public from abuse (such as in the fields
of medicine, psychology, engineering, and others) can be checked
through the appropriate authorities. Many governments and professional
societies have online databases that can be searched quite easily.
Internet search engines such as Google can be very helpful in
obtaining information about candidates, some of whom will have
their own web page.