Identity 2.0

Chances are , you have not heard about this service. Call it Trust 2.0 or Identity 2.0 , the central theme here is verification - in this case of a person or her work. It may yet turn out to be a killer theme globally as well as in the Indian context.

Indians are definitely not alone in fudging resumes , as this NY Times article shows. I feel more credit card fraud probably happens in US/UK than in India , and some recent call center cases gained much more adverse publicity courtesy the anti-outsourcing brigade.

There are some startups out there building job referral sites, that is , akin to LinkedIn, you could refer someone you know for a job opening. I think this is not a fool proof solution for the majority. And here is why.

The number of white collar jobs in IT/ITES companies in India is a fraction of the number of students graduating each year in different fields. An even smaller fraction is the number of students deemed "employable". Sure, there are lot of smart kids coming out of colleges. But given our demographics, the "also-rans" are huge in number. This leads to competition , but mostly at the entry level. Once you cross the threshold into an MNC or an Infy/Wipro/TCS/likes and bag a handful of years as experience, its pretty much your world for the taking.

If you don't know what I am talking about, go visit the open walk-in for a big software company in Bangalore. Someone I know almost got killed in a stampede during one such walk-in.

Job consultants have been around in India for a long enough time. But most of these smaller shops have a really bad reputation for screening quality freshers. Their screening process is as transparent as a wall, inside jobs are common, and test administration is closer to a farce. No wonder IT/ITES companies discover fudged resumes and poor communicators down the line.

The pressing need ,or shall we say opportunity,therefore, is of an identity verification cum selection company, targeted mainly at freshers in IT/ITES and having the following three attributes : 1) Inviolability 2) Transparency 3) Flexibility. Doas any such company exist in India?