What is white fonting and how to identify those resumes/CVs

Job seekers today find different ways to ensure their resumes are winning in the hiring game of potential employers in a highly competitive job market. Using creativity and innovation when crafting one’s resume is encouraged. However, there are cases where some applicants use unethical methods in trying to improve their chances. Resume frauds are on the rise due to desperation to get a job. 98% of Fortune 500 companies use ATS to screen resumes. But candidates are finding new ways to fool the software too. White fonting is one such technique that can lead to hiring a candidate who is either underqualified or overqualified for the given role.

In order to curb resume fraud, recruiters must be aware of the existence of such techniques and how to systematically handle them. This blog post will delve into what white fonting is, the risks associated with it, how to identify it, and best practices for reviewing resumes.

What is White Fonting?

White fonting is a deceptive practice where job seekers use white (or similarly invisible) text on their resumes or CVs to include extra keywords or phrases that match job descriptions. These hidden keywords are intended to manipulate Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) or resume parsing tools, which many companies use to filter and rank job applications based on keyword relevance.

The reason behind using these invisible words as content in their resumes is simple: the applicants are bypassing the filters of these ATSs to make it to the interview stage.

The Risks of White Fonting

Although white fonting seems to be a handy hack as it can help the candidate clear the ATS, it creates high risks for both job seekers and employers.

For Job Seekers:

Ethical Violation

Deceit during the campaigning process affects the candidate’s integrity and could lead to an ethical violation.

Loss of Reputation

If caught, a candidate loses his credibility and it would get difficult for the candidate to get hired in the future.

Legal Repercussions

In some scenarios, making fraudulent misrepresentation in a resume can lead to inevitable legal notices as it may fall under fraud.

Impact on the hiring process and employer reputation:

Misleading Information

When such acts come to light, employers would have to halt interviews and hiring to know more about the validity of all the candidates’ qualifications and the credibility of the information shared by them.

Wastage of Time and Resources

The time and resources spent on interviewing non-eligible profiles could have been better spent on genuinely eligible candidates.

How to Identify White Fonting

Detecting white fonting can be a challenging task, but there are several strategies/tactics or techniques that employers and recruiters can use to detect it.

Manual detection techniques:

Highlighting text

By highlighting the totality of the resume text, any text in the color of the white font will become visible against the highlighted background. It will help you identify hidden text in resumes irrespective of the font color.

Checking for unusual formatting

The editing of the color of the document’s background can make a prominent text appear that would be invisible otherwise.

Reviewing document properties

Thoroughly checking the CV document properties can help you find any unnecessary elements that are tricking the system. You can also select the complete text and paste it into a plain text editor that removes the formatting. This can reveal all those keywords that are there invisibly.

Pro Tip: Recruiters can also ask the candidate to share their resume in JPEG format or in editable word format, in this way, it will be easier for you to filter out white fonting from the resume.

Using recruitment software tools:

Advance ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems) capabilities

Some sophisticated ATS software have features to detect white fonting and warn resumes with suspicious formatting or ‘ invisible’ texts.

Specialized resume parsing tools

Use tools that are specially programmed to recognize the secret or manipulative text and other clandestine activity in the resume.

Best Practices for Reviewing Resumes

Employers and recruiters, through implementing multiple best practices, could ensure that they are reviewing an authentic and valid resume. Research from ResumeLab shows that 36% of respondents admitted to lying on their resumes. As a recruitment best practice, hiring managers must stay cautious and screen profiles with accuracy.

Encourage honest applications

Be honest and genuine while you invite applications. While going through your job description, and position invite, candidates should get the idea that a genuine organization is hiring for a credible position and there can be repercussions if the candidate tries to outsmart the system in unethical ways.

Set clear guidelines for resume submissions

Setting clear expectations and guidelines for resume submissions can be a good idea to keep white fonting resumes away. Though some candidates may try to push it, most of them will know that you are serious about this issue and will reject the application if anything like this is found.

Regular training for recruiters on detection methods

Keep the recruiters aligned by conducting regular training and sharing detecting methods with them on a timely basis. They need to practice tips shared above such as highlighting text, canopy pasting the whole resume in a plain text editor, checking for unusual formatting, etc.

Consequences for Candidates

White fonting, though may look like an attractive way to get past the ATS, can backfire quickly and can shatter a candidate’s reputation in a snap. Candidates adopting white fonting run the risk of a variety of upshots such as a ruined reputation or even serious legal actions.

Potential disqualification from the hiring process

Candidates will be immediately disqualified from the hiring process. For someone who has a dream of getting hired in a certain company, this can be heartbreaking.

Long-term career repercussions

Relying on such tactics indicates that a resume is not strong enough and can lead to career repercussions as companies will avoid hiring a candidate with a bad track record of credibility. This can even lead to career stagnation as no new company will hire the candidate due to the loss of trust.

Conclusion

White fonting is deceiving and unethical and brings risks to both the job seeker and the employer. It may seem to be a clever trick to use for bypassing filters in many cases, but the potential consequences are far worse. According to a 2020 survey by Checkster, as many as 78% of job applicants lie during the hiring process. The hiring process needs to have integrity at its core. Multiple candidates apply for a position, only when the hiring process is transparent, vigilant, and consistent, will you get the right candidate who is credible, genuine, and isn’t engaged in any resume fraud. Employers and recruiters must be able to detect and eliminate such cases with a hawk’s eye through automated and manual means.

Recruiters should emphasize to the candidates how they can improve their resumes honestly and show genuine skills and experiences instead of producing fraudulent information. In this manner, both will create a foundation to provide more reputable and effective job markets.