How Do I Accurately Calculate a Candidate's Work Experience with Conflicting Resumes?

I am working as an HR Manager in a company, and recruitment is currently in progress. One candidate yesterday submitted two resumes, and I noticed that in one resume, the candidate mentioned 2.6 months of experience, while in the other, it was 2.9 months. I was confused, and it seems the candidate is also unsure about their work experience.

Experience Breakdown

- Job 1: 10 months
- Job 2: 6 months
- Job 3: 1.1 years
- Job 4: 1 month

I tried to calculate the total experience, but I am still confused. Can somebody please help me determine the candidate's exact experience?

Thank you.

Hi Karthik, it is 2 years and 6 months only. This particular candidate has experience in dot net for 10 months (i.e., his first job). He then shifted to a Java trainee role for his second job and continued with Java for the rest of his career. He has written in his CV that he has 2.6 years of total experience, of which 1.8 years are relevant experience in Java.

I am confused about the fact that if he has 2.6 years of experience, of which 1.8 years are in Java, then only 8 months are left out. However, he has 10 months of experience in his first job. How can that be possible?

LOL!!!! I am confused...

Hey, it's once again left to you. In some cases, a few will consider the entire experience, and a few will consider only relevant experience. If you think even Java experience will add weightage, then you can consider it as 2.6 years. Yes, we are considering his entire experience. My issue is not that; my issue is regarding the calculation of experience. When he has 2.6 years of total experience, of which 1.8 years is in Java, and only 8 months in .NET (2.6 - 1.8 = 8), then how come 10 months in the first job?

In whichever way you calculate, his total experience is 2.6 years, i.e., 30 months. So, 1.8 years means 12+8=20 months. Therefore, 30-20=10 months. 樂 What's your confusion now? 

Regards,
Bharghavi

Yes, I am. And excuse me, please mind your language. If you don't want to give a suggestion, please don't do it. Do not question the identity of a person. I hope my message is clear to you.

I had a query, and I asked. I have got the answer to my question myself - the candidate was faking around with different resumes! Thank you all for responding to my query.

Very good math you have learned. Any decimal point will be a fraction of a single quantity. 1 year = 12 months, 0.5 year = 6 months, 0.8 year = 9.6 months, which is approximately 10 months. So, 1.8 years = 12 + 10 = 22 months.

I think I have posted this query in the 'General Discussion', where it says 'General Discussion - Experiences, stories, or anything you would want to share with the community'. So when I had a doubt about this particular candidate with different years of experience, I was confused about the years, which is very natural for anyone. I thought of discussing it here in the 'General Discussion' forum.

Later, I found out that this candidate was actually using different resumes and different years of experience. I immediately posted the same in this thread so that there wouldn't be any more discussion or comments on the same.

The message is very clear, Mr. Karthik. We need to utilize professional supporting sites, like this one, to seek advice on matters that are professional in nature and not mere clerical doubts. This will put the person asking questions in a bad light! Trust you will agree with me.

Wishes,
Anil

Dear Ravi and friends, Thank you for your inputs. In fact, you have pointed out a great dilemma or a grey area. Your assumptions and calculations are based strictly on mathematical concepts. Here, 1.5 would mean one-and-a-half. This way, 1.5 years would mean, as you rightly say, 1 year and 6 months.

Interpretation in HR Profession

How Bhargavi has interpreted it is as used in the HR profession. Suppose you have to fill out a form which has two boxes/columns for experience; one says "Years" and the other says "months" - then an applicant having one and a half years of experience will fill it out as 1 and 6, meaning 1 year 6 months.

No one is required to convert the number of months into the decimal system. Every profession has its specialties: language, terminologies, jargon, etc. They also have professional bodies for standardization. Though HR lags behind, we have to develop our own standards. To give an example: if experience is referred to, then we should consider the suffix after the point (dot) as the number of months and not decimal points.

Standard Interpretation Examples

When 5'6" is written, it is always referred to as 5 feet 6 inches. When one writes 11:25:20 hrs, it's always understood in terms of hours, minutes, and seconds.

Similarly, 2.8 or 2:8 years should always be interpreted as 2 years 8 months.

Warm regards.