Hard times for ‘fake’ techies

For thousands of techies who take up jobs using fake experience certificates, a piece of advice. Beware as for the first time in the city's history, an IT firm has lodged a police complaint against some of its employees for duping them with fake experience certificates.

"I joined TCS with a fake experience certificate but six months after I started work, they found out about it during the verification procedure. I have been asked to resign," said Ranjit (name changed to protect anonymity). He claimed he knew of at least two others working in his project team, who had also joined using fake certificates.

Ranjit feels that candidates mainly resort to such practices as companies refuse to give jobs to freshers. There are more candidates for fresher positions than jobs available, he said.

However, it is an open secret in the IT sector that about 15 to 25% of candidates come in and work using fake experience certificates. Some, it is known, even produce fake degree (mostly master degree) certificates to secure jobs.

In the second week of August, Mahindra Satyam reportedly lodged a complaint with the Madhapur police against 15 of its (now former) employees who had duped them by submitting fake experience certificates. Police booked cheating and forgery cases against the culprits under sections 420, 468 and 471 of the Indian Penal Code ( IPC).

"By the time the complaint was lodged, the accused were already sacked and had left the city. A majority of the accused were from Bangalore and Tamil Nadu. We are trying to track them," said Madhapur inspector Srinath Reddy to TOI.

K Vijay Kumar, team leader at a prominent IT MNC said however, that not all companies fired employees after finding out about the fake certificates. "Small companies do not sack such candidates. If they are found capable and deliver the product on time, even if their experience certificates turn out to be fake, they are not fired. Some big companies however, do ask the employees to resign voluntarily or sack them. However, lodging a police complaint for fake experience is a new trend, and freshers are advised to be more careful now," said Vijay.

Several MNCs utilise the services of private agencies to conduct background checks on candidates. "In 50% of the cases, fake experience gets noticed only upon verifying by calling the previous company's registered numbers. But these days, most of the 'fake' candidates use the names of nondescript companies and give their friend's phone number. In such cases, only the companies with dedicated background verification teams can track such people," said Rakesh, who works in the HR department of an IT company on Rd. No. 2, Banjara Hills.

Cognizant performance is great

Cognizant's growth and its rise to the No. 3 spot among IT services providers in India is viewed by some as exceptional. The fact is, it is exceptional compared to the two laggards in the business -- Wipro and Infosys. But compare it with TCS, HCL, and the more recent performances of midsize companies like Hexaware and KPIT Cummins, and you will find that Cognizant is only as good as the best.

Even in the latest quarter, TCS and Cognizant's revenue growth was the same; TCS's profit growth was faster. While Cognizant's revenues have grown faster than HCL, it lags HCL in profit growth.

Ankur Rudra, IT analyst at brokerage firm Ambit Capital, said that Cognizant's relatively nimble organization structure and larger investments in sales and marketing must be credited for its fast growth. "It keeps its margins low and continues investing in sales - it did that even during the recession -- which has enabled it to build good client relationships and grow fast."

But margins can only be a partial explanation because companies like TCS and HCL that maintain higher margins have also been able to maintain industry leading growth.

An industry analyst who did not want to be named said the timing of Cognizant's growth over the last 2-3 years has added sheen to its strong financial performance. It came at a time when Infosys and Wipro were undergoing restructuring exercises that slowed their growth.

Cognizant has also benefited from its huge focus on the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) space, which accounts for over 40% of its revenues, unlike a Wipro that has only 26% of its revenues from the segment. Srishti Anand, IT sector analyst at Angel Broking, said that the IT sector growth in recent times has been led by spends from the BFSI vertical.

But some of these very factors could become its Achilles heel. The dependence on BFSI could become a liability if the sector slows down, and there are signs of that already in the global economy. Unlike its peers, Cognizant has no presence in product engineering services (PES) that now contributes significantly to the revenues of companies like Wipro and HCL.