62 Comments
 

no they don’t check most of the time. That said, you shouldn’t lie on your CV since it’s unfair to those who are honest!

 

I had two in IB at BBs. You're about to have zero. Hope this helps!

 

Would it be worth redoing my A Levels? or doing a masters and removing the grades from my cv for ft?

 

I'll prefer to stay formal (but I absolutely don't blame anyone who expresses themselves more straightforwardly, as I feel the same way). My answer will be a bit more broad, as I don't know what and how things truly played out. As you were dishonest that time, there is no guarantee that you were completely honest this time. I certainly don't approve of what you did! Despite that, your life = your consequences, and I can't do anything about it. As per the consequences - it varies a lot. Anything from simply terminating the internship to a fine or even a law suit. It depends on the firm, how they approach such cases, how you lied, etc. (in other words, the details of the story)

As per lawdepot.com article "Yes, There Are Legal Consequences of Lying on Your Resume–Here Are a Few", here are some possibilities:

  • Fine
  • Lawsuit
  • Jail

I perfectly understand if the word "jail" can sound too extreme for some people. Things must get bad for that scenario to be more probable. Again, it is a highly variable situation, so the details can help only you to understand how bad it can go. But at the end of the day, lying on your resume can count as fraud, which is a criminal offense in the UK and US. Whether a warning, fine, misdemeanor or felony, again, it's completely down to the actual details. I don't know them and don't want to. What's done is done, to some extent, you opened a pandora's box, so corridor of possibilities is too wide to make a speculation, and if you get out of this dry - don't ever do it again, which I guess should be obvious. Talking to a lawyer or someone with similar experience can make things more clear for you... being honest at least with yourself and straightening your principles out will also help...

 

You also asked whether to tell them or not about the lie, and I forgot to answer that. UK (as you indicated it as your region) uses Stare Decisis in legal procedures, which means that in general repercussions or punishments are ruled out based on those in the past. In more simple words - it's precedent-based. So, looking up similar cases/stories that were in the past can help. Confessing will help you in any legal procedures, as continuing to hide it may signal that everything was absolutely deliberate and you didn't even feel guilty or wrong. Given that background checks are more thorough once a full-time offer is on the table - I would confess, and try to make some miracle happen and keep your records clean (HR's exchange such information constantly and globally). You are in a great risk of poising your career's prospects for flames and ashes.

 

I do understand the temptation, especially given that the career is so insanely competitive and lucrative (lucrative at least to me, as I grew up where the average income is literally $200-500/month; I heard some people say that IB hours aren't worth the pay, personally to me it's worth it). I am in the US, and here we indicate just the grade-point-average (I don't know specifically how you would do it in the UK). Whatever is considered the conventional and widely-accepted way to communicate your college performance is the way to go with. Just stick to professionalism and integrity, I don't think it's worth the risk. This is going to be my personal take now - college is too early to screw everything up. If everything flows up to the surface and your records get dammed - neither the grades or anything related to your education will play a role that will be significant enough to help you out.

If you think that what you just proposed is acceptable - get a feedback from the university's employment center or somebody from the industry, and then go onwards. I am unfortunately, not fully familiar with the most delicate aspects of IB recruitment in the UK... So, you know it better than I do. What I do know is that regardless of where you are - it's an unethical and a very risky thing to do.

Even though I firmly believe that all actions have their consequences, I think it would be the best scenario for you if you learnt from the mistake and navigated the situation somehow to avoid screwing your future completely (or at least minimizing the damage). Honesty is also a good way to go, surely if you want to make things right (I can't force you to do the right thing). So, going with the most objective way to report your grades should be the one.

In my motherland, we have a saying: "if you criticize - you propose". So here are a few things you can do to actually improve your situation without any integrity violations:

  • Retake those classes. Yes, it can be an additional hassle, but (at least in the US), if you retake the class and get an A then that A grade will be reported in your GPA, and given that you took those classes previously, it is not going to be that hard. Alternatively, take an extra semester just to retake those classes all-together in one go. You can take maybe around 8 classes (or as much as you can pull off). I know it sounds a bit brutal, but try to find your notes from those classes.
  • Take additional easy classes. If you can, add some small and easy classes to your regular curriculum. They may have a small weight (1-2 credits), but all those few credits of perfect grades per semester will add-up eventually.

At the end of the day, unfortunately, fixing our mistakes of the past never comes cheap...

 

Unrelated to the post but do they use GCSEs as a form of filtering? I get A-Levels are important given they're the most recent qualification we have, but feels like GCSEs are way further back

 

First of all, I think this is a terrible thing that you've done and you ought to be ashamed of yourself.

But, I will put on my Machiavelli hat on here. The repercussions of telling them that you lied about your grades are that you get fired or worse. This is not an option.

It is possible that your transcripts will never be requested. In this case, the point is moot and you go on about your life. If the transcripts are requested, you basically have two options, with the caveat that I don't fully know how A-Level transcripts work. Option 1 is the continuation of the lying through some variation of you forging the transcript and sending it to the employer, with the added complexity that could come if the request is made that the transcript come from the actual school. Forgery is truly terrible, and I have a a person I grew up with who is currently dealing with the consequences of forging documents and it has ruined their life. Option 2 is that you wait a bit, say you got cold feet and consider this opportunity burned, but try to stage it so that it doesn't obviously seem like you lied about the transcript in the first place, as your silence could be used against you in the future. 

What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive!

 

I mean, how else can they check if they don’t ask you for the certificate. I don’t think they have the authority to call up an exam board and ask for the grades of person X from 5 years ago

 

What if i don’t have my A Level certificates? what would they do then?

 

They'd just ask for your candidate number and similar info (no way of not forging these as they literally have your name, college, etc. attached to each) and then contact the exam board or your college to see what you got

 

I didn’t even have my high school grades in my CV… anyways it depends which firm but BBs do check more stringently.

My friends and BOFA didn’t get background checked too hard but my friend at MS got checked HARRDD.

Was even reaching out to the Singaporean military branch to verify his position and duration in service (military service is mandatory in SG) which they couldn’t give due to sensitive info and had some issue with that.

 

In the US there is no need to disclose High School grades. They only ask for college GPA on our resume. I did extremely well in high school but was told to not include high school grades. UK might be different. If this case gets caught you will most likely be told to explain the grade difference from your transcript and resume. You should find a convincing reason for that mistake and I don't recommend admitting you lied because that would get you into trouble.

 

How bad is the lie? Are we talking about some ‘ambitious’ predicted grades or straight up D to A* fabrication?

 

On same note … I accidentally put an internship I did down as July to September when official contract states August to September - issue for background checking companies?

 

I had a similar problem. Internship ran from feb to may, put the end date as June. Didn’t hear a thing about it even though the internship certificate I voluntarily submitted contradicted my CV. It’s immaterial 

 

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