Website that catches fake CVs

Lying your way into a job has just got more difficult with mohanchoti.com, an online portal, offering a system whereby candidates' capabilities can be verified by referees.

Launched by of a few IITians, led by Mahendra Pratap, the portal seeks to reward the good referee and punish the not-so-truthful one. A referee can earn up to Rs 10,000 per month by validating candidates' abilities.

A patent application was filed for the model in India in October last year and this year, the company plans to file for a patent in the US.

Recruiters using mohanchoti.com will be able to screen candidates better because "if a candidate gives false information, there is the chance this will be spotted by a referee who can be an acquaintance, friend or colleague," says Pratap who has 10 years' experience in the IT industry.

Both candidates and recruiters can access mohanchoti.com. A candidate, apart from posting his resume and making a job search, can indicate acquaintances who can act as referees.

Even if a candidate's CV is not on mohanchoti.com, an acquaintance can refer the candidate's name, CV details and e-mail ID. He may earn a bonus.

The referee will rate the candidates' technical expertise, key skills, experience level, leadership skills, team spirit, communication skills, innovative bent and process-orientation, among others.

If a recruiter finds the reference satisfactory during the interview, he has the option to return and rate the referee on a scale of 1 to 10. This will be a key parameter in rating a referee. If a referee tries to exaggerate the qualities of a candidate and this is discovered during the interview, the referee's credibility will come into question and rating decline.

According to the mohanchoti.com business model, at the end of each quarter the company will share 25 per cent of its quarterly revenues with referees. This will be given on the basis of the points earned and their ratings. When a recruiter buys a reference, a referee will earn 100 points.

At the end of a quarter, if the points earned by all referees is 10,000 and revenue is Rs 10 lakh, then 25 per cent or Rs 2.5 lakh will go to referees and each point will be valued at Rs 25 (Rs 2.5 lakh divided by 10,000). A referee who earns 100 points will get Rs 2,500 (Rs 25 multiplied by 100). When employers give a referee an average rating of 8 out of 10, his 100 earned points will be deflated to 80. Then he will get 80 per cent of Rs 2,500.

For recruiters, the services come at Rs 50,000 to Rs 3 lakh p.a. Clients will have access to the database of candidates and be given a certain number of references free. Mohanchoti has now got 30 firms. It claims to have a database of over 60,000 candidates.