How do you feel about..lying?

Certain banks ask for an informal transcript as part of the background check, after extension of the offer. If you were really gutsy you could modify the PDF document before passing it on; but it's pretty hard and most of them have ridiculous formatting to circumvent this.

General advice suggests not to lie, but it's a personal decision you should weigh the cost/benefit. If you don't think you'll make it through rounds without having a boosted GPA, then change it. But you'll have to live with the fact that your offer may be rescinded when HR asks for a copy of your transcript.

I would rather go through the process with a clean nose, but that's just my two cents. If you've worked that hard to secure the offer, it would pretty dumb to let your white lie cost you the job.

Also, use the search function next time. There are tons of threads on this.

Would have to recommend against.

I'll elect not to address the moral side of it since if you're actually considering doing this then you aren't the kind of person who will be swayed by what I have to say.

Nonetheless, from a career standpoint, this just isn't worth the risk. You only have one reputation and this is the kind of thing that if caught could destroy your entire career. Even if you don't get found out initially, it could catch up to you any point down the line for the rest of your life.

NOPE

Incredibly unethical, and almost any job is going to have a background check where you will be discovered. Don't waste your time and don't waste a great opportunity that could have went to someone who actually is qualified.

Leave your gpa off your resume?

Bad idea. Don't do it.

The risk-to-reward is way out of whack. Maybe lying will get you a first-round interview, but the obvious downside is that it could ruin your career (or life, if you want to put it that way).

I would either just leave it off, express it in a separate form (major GPA) if that's decent, use standardized test scores in lieu of it (if they're good), list coursework/honors/extracurriculars, etc.

Unfortunately, GPA is a really shitty metric to evaluate candidates IMHO. Depends on the school, major, courses, what professors you took, how aggressively you used the pass/fail option, what courses you dropped, how much you cheated your way through on tests/homework/projects, how much amphetamine you were on, and the resume itself presents all sorts of issues with egregious rounding and outright lying. IMO, you have absolutely ZERO clue what a GPA is actually telling you. If you see a 3.6 on a resume, what the fuck does that even mean? It could be good, it could be bad, it could actually be a 3.36, and it could obviously be complete bullshit in various ways.

With that said, it's one of the only quantitative ways to evaluate candidates so it is what it is.

One of the most common pieces of advice/statements I have heard from successful people in Finance is that in this industry, you are your reputation.

Don't do it.

You should watch Suits.

Please do. Oh, and don't forget to let us know how it goes.

What does this lying entail? A 3.44 to a 3.5 or a 2.3 to a 3.7? One is considered good gamesmanship the other will get you a ding industry wide.

As you put it, if they are 'too lazy' to check... it doesn't matter to them anyways. Did it ever occur to you that you could land the job with your current GPA, but if the same people found out you were lying they'd find someone else?

Rounding from a 3.44 to a 3.5 is a small lie but a lie nonetheless.
Rounding from a 3.31 to a 3.5 is a bold-faced lie and equates to you going up an entire letter grade (B+ to A-, assuming you have plus/minus) in more than half of the total classes you took.

The difference in the two is that the former can possibly be explained away, if the group likes you enough, or could end up in you ruining your chance. The latter would likely end up with you getting blacklisted with the firm, and could end up in an industry-wide blacklisting if you get caught and do anything but try to make the situation right.

In an industry where your word means a lot and your reputation can be destroyed in an instant, I would highly recommend that you not hurt your credibility before even getting a job, let alone an interview.

A 3.41 -->3.5 is considered ok by most people when rounding. More than that might be a problem down the road.

Here's what you do. Put your actual GPA. Period. Just put it. If you feel the need to round it, do it in the mathematically acceptable way and call it a day. You are candidly wasting your time worrying about whether 'lying' or omitting it will serve you better. Neither will. Take your time and effort and start talking to real people who work in these places and start establishing a network that you can leverage to get more interviews and opportunities down the road. You being ignored is the result of you not standing out. You could be following up with those shops, talking to people before hand, asking them to forward your resume in.

Also let's be clear: you aren't 'lying' about your GPA. You are trying to get through a barrier in the wrong way. Your incremental rounding is quite literally irrelevant at this point, and you should focus on other methods that could provide much better results.

The real question is why is your GPA bad enough that you would even consider lieing about this and potentially destroy your career.

Also, do not take the CFA exam. You will probably fail the ethics portion.

if 0.01 in GPA is a difference maker in terms of you getting hired, maybe you should become more well rounded.

I would never lie about my GPA. The truth will always catch up with you. In fact, after reading this article...

http://www.cnbc.com/id/48246113

...I decided that there was only one thing I would ever lie about in an interview. It goes something like this:

Interviewer: "If I told you that the only way you were going to get this job is if you let me sleep with your girlfriend, would you accept?"

Me: "I accept, but the only way you are going to sleep with my girlfriend is if you first let me fuck your dad. Also, you and your mom have to watch."

if I was your boss and you lied and I found out, whether it was 3 days or 3 decades later i would fire you and make sure no one else hired you. so if you are ok with possibly working as a fry cook at McDonald's for the rest of your life, go for it. .

Dude just put the gpa and have a good explanation as to why it is as low as it is OR don't put it or bring it up until/ if it is asked of you. Don't pussy out because you got ignored. Just network the fuck out of the industry because pretty much every firm is going to ask for your transcript at some point in time, and when it comes you're going to be left there with your dick in your hands- and out of a job in finance forever.

Do not however lie about your GPA if you are hiring in the States and are applying to BB.. it will ruin your name on the street if you get caught. Think of the PV of losing your career in finance vs the PV of earning an extra 20k-30k a year for the first years of your career by getting in lessor entry level job.

However, if you are desperate and do not care about ethics, there are ways to get around a low GPA in online applications. If you are from the states and apply in Europe, you could put that you have 2:1 (which is top tier grades) and not put your GPA on your resume. I have read around and no one really seems to know the GPA equivalent. Apparently it ranges from 3.4 to 4.0 to be considered a 2:1. If they ever asks questions, you could probably get away with saying you weren't aware of the conversion from North America to European grading system.

Good Luck,

Trust is everything in this field. And if someone finds out, everyone will know since the industry is so small. Don't do it. Leave it off of your resume or write a good CV explaining what you did with your time that caused the low GPA

The fact that you don't think you can get a job without lying about your GPA is an indicator of why you won't get the job anyways

As someone who spent over 25 years in investment banking (M&A, to be precise), I would say, don't EVER lie. I promise, if you want a career in the business, sooner or later it WILL catch up to you. When it does, your career in finance will end, period. Remember, finance is built on trust and honesty. Those who aren't honest get found out, eventually.

If you've sent your resume to that many places and not gotten any results, I doubt that altering your GPA will change anything. There's probably a deeper problem there that you need to investigate.

We fired a girl for lying on her resume, it didn't come out until a few months after she started, but she was let go without discussion when it was found out.

Just reiterating the general consensus here, but hopefully this will be the straw that breaks the camel's back: do NOT lie. Do not become unscrupulous in an industry that is built on relationships.

You could always forge a transcript.

But just as a heads up, this might end with a prison sentence.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/10/education/10yale.html?_r=0

If you do get away with it, you will start to think you can get away with other things as well. Don't go down that path.

Exhibit A - Mathew Martoma (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathew_Martoma)

I cannot possibly see how anyone would think this is a good idea. Morality aside, employers can easily get access to your transcript, grades, etc. without you providing it to them. When they find out you did something THAT dumb, I can imagine it'd be pretty hard for you to find a job elsewhere.

Why did this poor fellow get front pages?

I sent my resume to a big bank about 7 months ago while my GPA was at 3.75. In that span my GPA has dropped to 3.25 (long story). I have my interview Friday with the bank and they have my resume with the 3.75 GPA. I know not to mention my GPA unless asked, but I don't want to come across as a liar either. How do I explain my GPA being higher on my resume than it currently is?