As we all know, this is VERY bad to do. But most people over-exaggerate the truth, I know many people give practiced and often over-padded competency examples during interviews to impress, and many do still lie about their credentials (and go on to secure jobs, without HR checking). The article below shows how someone in a senior level position was removed from the position for lying about their credentials.
On Friday, the hedge fund (Third Point), which is the middle of a contentious proxy battle with Yahoo, called for the dismissal of the technology company’s chief executive, Scott Thompson, after revealing that he had inaccurately stated his credentials.
Students/job seekers: Have you lied and/or padded your resume?
Employers: Does you company have a no-tolerance policy on lying (ie someone is immediately dismissed no matter what)? or is it subjective/depend on the situation?
Here's the full article: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/05/04/hedge-fund…
I also have a question about this, I understand HR can check your grades, but what about extracurriculars? What if you embellish that (say you were in this position when you werent). How do they check that?
Some banks hire people to check up on you. Weeks into a BO gig, they were still picking details on my resume, the seem to outsource it to the most annoying people. If had lied, they would have found it pretty quickly.
That''s why Yahoo! is Yahoo!.
Correct me if I'm wrong but under FERPA Higher education is not allowed to disclose personal information of students . So HR has no legal way of checking it .
Yeah... Most places will require you to submit a transcript or waive your FERPA rights at least when you get hired. Most BBs wanted an Unofficial Transcript when I submitted on OCR.
Thomson hasn't been fired.
You'll have to sign a waiver / request a copy of your transcript be forwarded.
Great post. I would never cheat on my resume because I would be way too paranoid that it would come back to haunt me.
In my opinion it is okay to embellish in interviews when given behavioral questions (e.x. give me a time when you were a team player) especially when you haven't had real FT experience because they are looking more for your philosophy rather than your actual examples. I don't think it ok to say you founded an organization when you were just the secretary, but I think its ok to mention an example of teamwork that you have noticed.
I draw the line in the sand when it comes to lying about credentials and anything considered to be "official" record. You should never say you had an internship that you didn't or were in the honors college if you weren't. Those things are more binary in that you either are telling the truth or lying and its never good to strait up lie.
White lies can get you too. If you are at an interview and you namedrop someone that you don't really know too well and happen to be speaking to someone who does know that person, you are screwed.
Well with the ridiculous cost of College, and the competitive job market, its going to happen. But outright faking information has to garner some attention.
Its quite something to think about, you bust your ass off for 4 years, spend thousands. Or someone could counterfeit the near same exact thing for a couple grand in 1 week.
Reminded me of that Harvard fake Adam Wheeler.
I interviewed a manager at Sauders Graduate school (UBC) for a school project earlier in the year for my business ethics class and asked her how often she ran into this problem. Her response, they did a study and 80% of resumes are embellished in a fairly significant way. How to combat this? apparently they do more interviews that grill much harder to see if you actually know your shit and on the other end networking cant be copied and is invaluable when you eventually start applying. resumes will be embellished, it is in the game now., however if you network hard enough you shouldn't even need a resume. I hear of many stories where due to networking they are getting offered jobs rather then even having to apply.
Did you read the article?
LOL. I was thinking about this earlier today, I think it's a rather common thing on WSO.
I also have a question about 2 unpaid internships I have had. How do the BBs view that ?
bump
If you're not cheating, you're not trying.
Anyone who isn't outright embellishing things these days is a fool IMO.
bump
I actually understand lying about or embellishing your GPA way more than lying about things. The pressure and race to keep up in terms of GPA (which IMO is an imperfect way of looking at things, kind of looking at ERA in baseball, lots of confounding variables) makes people feel like they have to say they're better than they are. In my opinion, your experiences, jobs, and activities make you who you are much more than GPA, so to me, if you're lying about those things, they you're misrepresenting yourself far more.
Michael, I'd stop trying to make yourself feel better about bumping your 2.9 to a 3.4 on your resume. Just a bad bad bad idea...will look for a a few threads that may scare you straight.
I'm not suggesting it as a good idea--I'm just saying I understand how someone could do it, what with all the pressures and perceived importance put on GPA, whereas I couldn't in any way see the same side of things for making up experience.
here's some food for thought: //www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/ive-been-fired-what-do-i-do
That is likely the oldest example on WSO, but there are countless other careers that have been ruined by lying. Even with a sub-par GPA, you CAN make it in. you just need to network your ass off. Lying about anything on your resume is a very dumb move.
If you embellish a bit on some of your activities fine (a good interviewer can smell BS anyways), but if you flat out lie like with your GPA, you are really taking a huge risk (one I'd argue is NOT necessary to be successful).
Yeah, like I'm going to answer that.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahah
Definitely shouldn't lie (eg showing higher gpa, diplomas, etc) but i think everyone makes their accomplishments sound more important than reality. This isn't lying in my view.
It's so tempting to add a few tenths to your gpa, but there are too many stories of people getting found out.
JUST DO LIIKE SCOTTT YOU HEARD??
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