Job opportunities have become scarce nowadays. More people are now turning to self-employment and entrepreneurship for a sustainable source of income. Despite this, the job market still requires a sizeable supply of manpower to carry out specific tasks that have yet to be taken over by computerised machines. Local companies have yet to experience this phenomenon at a larger scale, with most jobs requiring human intervention. While it can not be denied that school leavers and graduates alike are actively seeking for employment opportunities, there are certain individuals who are taking advantage of their desperation. One of the insidious methods used to capitalise on applicants' desperate quest for job is CV fishing.

CV fishing is a relatively new phenonmenon, one that most people do not seem to have a firm grasp on what it actually is. Simply put, CV fishing refers to the elaborate scheme of stealing someone's curriculum vitae, personal details and academic qualifications for the purpose of forging said documentations for personal gain without the knowledge of the person or persons to whom the CV actually belongs to. How does CV fishing work? One of the most common methods involves advertising a job position on the social media such as Facebook. The latter is usually accompanied by minimal details, ambiguous address and street names that are generally vague. Indeed, similar job offers do not appear to provide a legitimate phone number except for an email address that clearly indicates the lack of professionalism or the absence thereof.

Before I managed to land a job at a local company, I was one of the few people who fell victim to CV fishing. After graduating from the university four years ago, my friends and I were so desperate to look for job opportunities that we literally tried almost every vacancy possible. From kitchen helper to cleaner, to exterminator and escalator maintenance, we could hardly see a glimmer of hope in our tireless adventure in the job market. While we had opted out from applying for any position in the public sector due to the dwindling economic situation, our quest had taken us to a whole new level of ephiphany, a realisation of just how competitive the local job market was. It was not until my friends and I came across an advert on social media, claiming to search for potential admin clerks and several other entry-level positions. How to apply for the said positions? The ad instructed interested applicants to send in their CV to an address somewhere in the capital. It had also promised to inform the shortlisted candidates by contacting them through phone while the not so fortunate ones were to be contacted via phone as well. Being a bunch of young graduates that we were, we did not waste the opportunity to send our CV to the address. We felt that we had nothing to lose since perseverance was one of the motivating factors that had driven us thus far. By then, we had sent over dozens of CVs to dozens of companies after months of being unemployed.

Months passed by and we had not received a single call from the unnamed company. After each of us has finally got a job, we had completely forgotten about it, until now. Looking back, my friends have told me that the unnamed company we had sent our CV to might be fraudulent from the start. One of them has pointed to the fact that the address does not have any phone number that we can reach. To add to that, there are no known companies using the postal address in question. Although we have not taken this matter to the authority because most of us are employed now, and the revelation is not a definitive proof of any criminal activity, we somehow feel that this could very well be fraudulent in nature. This is where the suspicion comes into play. Since a company that offers the job vacancy does not seem to exist, we have reasons to believe that the address is used as a collecting center for CV and academic certificates. The persons responsible behind this shady operation may select CV with the best contents and academic qualifications to be falsified or even sold to other people who are looking for the quickest way to cheat their way through in the job market without having to go through that much of a hassle. Looking up online, the practice of lying in resume and buying fake degree and certificates is more common than you think especially outside of Brunei. But, is Brunei the only country that does not experience such a phenomenon?

So far, there is no evidence that can substantiate our claims on the so-called CV fishing activity. After all, these are all theories. However, identity theft and forgery are so commonplace in our world today that some shrewd individuals have managed to secure well paid jobs, thus excluding other applicants who actually deserved the position. Thankfully though, the Government of His Majesty the Sultan has enforced a stringent labor law which prevents any violation of the employment order by irresponsible individuals.

Have you ever experienced something similar to CV fishing? What do you think are the consequences of such malpractice? For more latest thought-provoking hot topic, be sure to check BruDirect.com every week and we will bring you some of the current issues that you can discuss with your friends and family.

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by BruDirect.com

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