Lip syncing accounts for maximum interview frauds, finds FloCareer

The platform has seen that a majority of CVs which do not qualify for subsequent stages are those with a typical template from CV-builder websites, and CVs that list all possible skills.

Over 14 percent candidates committed job frauds in the past six months on interview as a service (IaaS) platform FloCareer. Out of this, 80 percent were guilty of lip syncing, where the interviewee pretended to answer questions in a third person’s voice.

This was followed by external help. Around 8 percent of candidates chose to take help from a third person who prompted from behind the screen. The remaining 12 percent went for online search, system tools, etc.

“Such frauds call for a voice biometric base. Just like the DNA is matched with hair samples, two voices are compared, before and after the interview. This technology is already there. We just created another use case,” Mohit Jain, Co-Founder of FloCareer, told Moneycontrol.

Mistakes in CV

The platform has seen that a majority of CVs which do not qualify for subsequent stages are those with a typical template from CV-builder websites, and CVs that list all possible skills.

“When people try to oversell themselves and highlight all skills, irrespective of whether they know them or not, they sure do pass the filtering stage but fail to advance into the real test when those skills are put to use,” Jain said.

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Interviews in IT companies mainly focus on skills such as Data Science, DevOps, Cloud & Cloud Security. Besides, there has been over 100 percent growth in demand for emerging skills such as AI/ML, Android Hardware, very large-scale integration (VLSI), Oracle Cloud, Unity etc.

Apart from technical skill requirements, companies present candidates with situational-based questions which are mostly around a present business problem. This is in 98 percent of the cases.

“Instead of Googling and searching for standard answers, the best way of approaching such questions is to understand the problem and solve them on your own,” Jain said, adding that companies look for candidates who are ready to attempt the challenge with original solutions.

The evaluation is not based upon the final outcome but whether the candidate has understood the problem and what approach he/she is taking to solve it.

Typical interview duration

FloCareer has conducted an average of over 1.3 lakh interviews in last six months across sectors and job roles, and has observed that an average interview is of 40-45 minute duration, for mid- and junior-level job roles. Some of the major companies using the IaaS platform include Mercedes Benz, Wipro, General Electric, and Levi’s.

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However, there are several companies which opt for a 90-minute interview in two parts of 45 minutes each. For instance, for tech and related roles, the first part focuses on coding challenges or purely technical parts, followed by a deep dive Q&A on specific technology the company or the project is focusing on.

Recently, there have been very edge cases where staffing companies approached with a requirement of conducting 20-minute interviews.

“When companies are hiring, they look for a selection-based interview – giving more time to candidates and exploring if there’s a chance of selections,” Jain said. However, he added that staffing companies want rejection-based interviews with pinpoint questions and processes to shortlist only suitable candidates.